The Oregon Department of Agriculture released its first-ever tabulation of chemicals used on farms, fields and forests in 1997, including commercial agriculture facilities, and the study finds that farms and companies associated with agriculture commerce accounted for a majority of the uses, but that landowners located in the Deschutes River Basin, which stretches from Terrabone to La Pine, were among the lowest users of pesticides in the state.
The agriculture industry accounted for nearly all of the chemical use, with almost 85 percent of the total. That was followed by other at 9 percent and forestry at 3 percent, according to the ODA data.
More than 40 million pounds of pesticides and herbicides were used in Oregon’s farms, with a soil fumigant used on potato fields known as metam-sodium by far the most-applied product by weight, accounting for for 42 percent of the chemicals applied in 1997, the report says.
Rounding out the top five chemicals after metam-sodium were glyphosate at 9 percent of the total weight, a wood preservative called copper naphthenate at 7 percent, a soil fumigant known as dichloropropene at 5 percent and the insecticide aliphatic petroleum hydrocarbons at 4 percent, according to the report.
“Oregon pesticide use shows similarities with what neighboring California has been finding through their reporting system,” ODA Director Katy Coba said. “One year’s data is interesting, but we hope the reports collected this year and in the future will help provide a more clear picture of trends in Oregon’s pesticide use.”
The report was authorized by the 1999 Legislature to provide more detailed information about the use of toxic chemicals in agriculture, to gauge how they affect soil and water quality. It was released last week after being delayed by years of political struggle, according to published reports.
