Tulare County Fails to Deliver Protections for Ivanhoe

Photo Credit: IVAN Tulare

By Pedro Hernandez

Despite a commitment to pass new policies by Fall of 2020, the Tulare County Supervisors have failed to approve new protections from the impacts of pesticides in Ivanhoe.

In previous years, the Ivanhoe Public Utility District has reported finding the chemical 123-TCP or 123 trichloropropane in one of the community water wells. The chemical originated from pesticides used decades ago and is currently prohibited. The legacy of pesticide impacts are also by many residents who live near the orchards surrounding Ivanhoe and report pesticide drift onto their homes.

As a response and acknowledgement of the impacts of pesticides, in fall of 2019 Tulare County’s Resource Management Agency approved a commitment to adopt protective policies in the 2019 Ivanhoe Community Plan. This document provides local area-specific policies and plans for the development of the town for the next decades. However, despite being approved, community advocates say the County of Tulare has failed to develop and adopt a buffer zone to keep residents safe from pesticides

To learn more, the Ivanhoe Sol spoke with Blanca Escobedo, a policy advocate with the organization Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability that advocates for environmental justice in Tulare County.

Escobedo described the situation in Ivanhoe as, “overall there’s not a lot of community protection regarding pesticide application and exposure in places like Ivanhoe that are encompassed by all agriculture. The health impacts that pesticide exposure can cause is something you take seriously.”

According to Escobedo and other community advocates, Tulare County has failed to honor its commitments. She says, “When it comes to meeting the deadline, the county did not meet the deadline and has not shown significant progress nor offered an alternative timeline.” When reflecting on efforts to enforce this commitment, Escobedo claims that the Tulare County Resource Management Agency has only responded with delay tactics, using the pandemic as one of the reasons for the delay.

Nevertheless, many residents have reported incidents of pesticide exposure within Ivanhoe and during the pandemic.

Moving forward she says, “The County needs to dedicate more attention and dedication to producing this policy and working with the Ivanhoe residents who identified this.”

Many Ivanhoe residents are disappointed by the lack of action. Escobedo reports that, “They feel like there are no solutions to the problem because a lot of their concerns have gone ignored”.  Ultimately, “There needs to be more efforts in place by the county and the farming community to recognize that this is a problem but it doesn’t have to be this way. They know there are alternative but they don’t want to deal with the transition pains”

Residents and the environment must be protected while pesticides are in use. Escobedo asserts that “there should be solutions and projects that will help minimize the exposure and transition to agriculture methods that will protect communities for decades to come”. As for solutions for reducing pesticide exposure Escobedo recommends the following:

•   Protecting communities surrounded by harmful pesticides with amenities and infrastructure like greenery to promote health, where they can walk and do physical activities safely. Many residents walk within the orchards.
•   Creating strong notification policies to share information about when pesticides are being applied for all Ivanhoe residents
•   Enforceable regulations to limit pesticide drift Strict rule and have farmers implement, enforceable. Many are unaware about regulations.
•   Regenerative non harmful ag practices less reliant on industrial agriculture

Until policies are adopted, Escobedo recommends reporting pesticide applications to contact the Tulare Identifying Violations Affecting Neighborhoods or IVAN Network online at https://ivantulare.org/ or at (559) 562-3060.  This reporting network is hosted by the Central California Environmental Justice Network. Residents can report issues like pesticide drift or illegal dumping online and the network hosts facilitate investigations into each incident.