Roundup was used in front of Fire Station 69 to kill vegetation in preparation for landscaping.
Roundup/Landscaping at Fire Station 69
Roundup is not illegal in Los Angeles. A resident emailed Circling the News on November 7 and said, “I was walking past Station 69 on Carey this morning and they had a man out on the parkway spraying Roundup. I called and verified. This is a parkway strip with a lot of foot/dog paw traffic. I am furious. It is easy to clear a parkway strip without poison.”
CTN contacted the fire station and learned that firefighters were not using the product; instead it was Michael Frilot of Arbor Solutions.
We contacted Frilot and asked why he was using Roundup and if he had heard about Councilman Mike Bonin trying to ban Roundup in the Cit
Frilot responded in a November 8 email: “We were hired by a reputable landscape company [American Growers, owned by Palisadians Tracey and David Price] that works local in your area and are subcontractors on the project [Station 69 landscaping].
“The work performed was done legally within the guidelines of all label requirements. All licensing, insurance, registration etc. to do business are current,” he wrote.
“[I] fully understand the sensitivity and community concerns with the recent press concerning Round Up. Additionally, [I’m] completely unaware of a motion and/or incident that occurred in Pacific Palisades last year,” Frilot said.
CTN contacted Councilman Bonin’s office for clarification about Roundup use in the City. On November 14, Bonin’s spokesperson David Graham-Caso responded in an email, “The Councilmember’s legislation asked the Department of Recreation and Parks to look at alternatives to using Roundup, and in response to the motion and subsequent reports, the Department agreed not to use Roundup or other glyphosate herbicides near playgrounds or recreation areas.
“There is no law banning Roundup–just a new department policy agreeing not to use it in sensitive areas,” Graham-Caso said.
Many residents in Pacific Palisades had read the August story in several newspapers about how a California jury ordered Monsanto to pay a plaintiff, Dewayne Johnson, $289,000 for the company’s neglect in alerting Johnson and the rest of the public about the potential links between Roundup and cancer.
How long will it take for Roundup to be banned everywhere. I remember that over 20 years ago a Palisades resident launched a thorough investigation on the chemical as a response to the severe health effects on his daughter, a long distance runner who became quite ill running on the track at the school. I believe ultimately LAUSD terminated the use of the pesticide as a weed killer at their campuses. We need to remind landscape companies, gardeners and homeowners that the expediency of such a legal weed killer is not worth the longterm health harm it causes.