Environment

Is Herbicide Used for Carrizo on Mexican -USA Border Safe?

by Pat Garcia | March 27, 2009 at 06:36 am

481 views | 54 Recommendations | 6 comments

We have beautiful carrizo plants in the area, no need to spray them. They're used to make furniture and palapas, but we are not facing the issues being faced at the border.

Environmental groups are blasting a U.S. Border Patrol project to kill invasive plant life along the Mexican border with an herbicide activists are calling the next Agent Orange -- the Vietnam War-era deforesting chemical later found to cause cancer.

But scientists say the chemical, a relatively common herbicide named Imazapyr, poses little threat to humans or native wildlife.

The Border Patrol plans to spray the herbicide to kill Carrizo cane, which grows in dense thickets along vast stretches of the Rio Grande, which separates the United States and Mexico.

Border Patrol supervisor Roque Sarinana calls the plant "a safety hazard for agents” that enables a drug or human smuggler to cross the border almost undetected.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Uwe Paschen

at 08:31 on March 27th, 2009

Sounds like agent Orange now used to fight Mexican drug cartels rather then Vietcom.

The Environment and Life at large is what suffers most due to Human wars.

Amy Judd

at 09:35 on March 27th, 2009

Oh my gosh, this is terrible news if it is such a deadly chemical.

kuuva

at 11:47 on March 27th, 2009

did you guys see that the USDA wants to release Wasps to help control this invasive species.

http://www.gsnmagazine.com/cms/features/news-analysis/1654.html

i had read somewhere that shade will kill the cane too. Plant trees and the cane dies back in a few years.

kuuva

at 12:08 on March 27th, 2009

i do believe in border security, i would just cut it down with industrial lawn mowers. Catapillar can design them and they could be massive.

heck it will give people jobs. I know it will grow back but who cares, just cut it down again. Give them a gun too, then they can patrol the border at the same time.

just some random thoughts that some may like.

kuuva

at 12:48 on March 27th, 2009

true herbicide can be delivered very rapidly. i love to watch crop dusters, those guys are awesome pilots. I just was reading about it. It primarily grows by rhizomes, which means mechanical removal is basically impossible. I just hate spraying herbicides directly into the water system, to me there is something wrong with that.

Think some other plant in the river will probably die, which will then take out some bug or fish. the whole food chain can get messed up.

But for the time being, I dont really see another option. Overall, i think our water quality has improved since the Clean Water Act was implemented, remember the Cuyahoga River catching on fire in the 50's and 60's.

Barbara McPherson

at 18:24 on March 27th, 2009

I'm not familiar with this plant, but we have to be very careful in defoliating large areas. So often when we think we have the answer to a problem, we get unforeseen consequences.