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Judge Denies No-Spray Stay by Mitch Lies Capital Press, May 21, 2004

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour this week denied a motion to suspend an injunction he put in place earlier this year prohibiting pesticide application near salmon-bearing waters.

Coughenour in 2002 ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency was out of compliance in registering pesticides for use near salmon-bearing waters without consulting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service.

In January, the Seattle, Wash., judge banned the use of 34 pesticides within 60 feet of salmon bearing waters for ground applications and 300 feet for aerial applications after Washington Toxics Coalition and other environmental groups filed for the injunction while an appeal was pending.

Earlier this year, the pesticide industry organization CropLife America and other groups sought a stay of the injunction in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and from Coughenour. The Ninth Circuit May 4 also ruled against the motion. In doing so, however, the Ninth Circuit granted a request for an expedited appeal. The request was brought by CropLife, Oregonians for Food and Shelter, Washington Friends of Farms and Forests and other intervenors.

The Ninth Circuit set a June 1 opening date to hear arguments in the appeal.

The EPA in March also filed a notice to appeal Coughenour’s ruling.