A City of Bloomington commission wants to stop using an herbicide in public spaces.
The weed-killing chemical is called glyphosate, and it’s found in brands like Round Up. The City’s Commission on Sustainability and Resilience is working on a resolution that formally opposes it and advises using “sustainable, non-toxic alternatives” to kill weeds and pests.
In the resolution, the commission states the Agency for Research on Cancer identified glyphosate as a potential carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The resolution also said the chemical has negative environmental impacts, including soil degradation, loss of biodiversity and harm to pollinators.
“It's very simple, just, let's stop using glyphosate,” Matt Austin, a member of the Commission on Sustainability and Resilience, said when he presented the resolution in March. “There's other ways that you can do it — vinegar, salts, things like that.”
Austin said other cities have adopted similar methods.
“College towns, like Lawrence, have implemented an integrated pest management program into reducing chemical herbicides,” Austin said, “And then Evanston, Illinois, and Urbana, Illinois, as well, when we're talking close places similar to Bloomington.”
But the resolution is not so simple for Monroe County- Identify and Reduce Invasive Species. In a statement issued by Ellen Jacquart, president of MC-IRIS, the group said the resolution is “unnecessary and would cause more environmental harm than it would prevent.”
The group said non-toxic alternatives won’t kill pests.
“Removing glyphosate as an option for managing invasive plants in the City of Bloomington’s
natural areas would result in the city needing to use more toxic chemicals that pose a greater
danger to applicators and the environment,” the group said. “We absolutely oppose this well-intended but misguided statement.”
As for the impact on humans, MC-IRIS said red meat and hot beverages are listed in the carcinogenic category as glyphosate by the Agency for Research on Cancer.
MC-IRIS members are planning on opposing the resolution at a Commission on Sustainability and Resilience meeting later this month.
