96% pure or 100% polluted ? I found statistics by both sides of this article interesting not because I care much what the water tastes like but to show the outragious manipulation of statistics by both sides of sensitive environmental issues.
Environmental group finds fault with reporting of pesticide study
By Shannon Dininny Associated Press Writer
November 26, 2004
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — An environmental group has taken issue with the way the state Department of Agriculture released results of a pesticide study earlier this week, saying the agency misled the public into believing no pesticides were found in two watersheds.
On Monday, the state Department of Agriculture reported results from the first year of a three-year study to monitor pesticide concentrations in salmon-bearing streams. No pesticide residues were detected in about 96 percent of water samples from two Washington state watersheds, the agency reported.
The Washington Toxics Coalition did not find fault with the report itself. However, the report showed that pesticides were found in 100 percent of the samples taken from the streams, which is not what the agency reported in its news release, said Erika Schreder, staff scientist for the Washington Toxics Coalition.
"It's misleading," Schreder said Wednesday.
State officials don't dispute that pesticides were found in all the samples taken from the streams. However, they won't back off on how they reported the findings.
About 155 samples were taken from the streams. Those samples then were tested individually for 144 specific pesticides, resulting in about 22,000 tests. In those tests, the specific pesticides being searched for were detected only 862 times, producing the 96 percent rate for finding no pesticide residue, said Bridget Moran, manager of the state Agriculture Department's Endangered Species Program.
Moran took exception to claims the agency was being misleading.
"Every sample we took (from the streams) we found pesticides, as we would expect when we look for 144 pesticides," Moran said. "We're just trying to put out the entire picture of all the data we looked at."
In 2002, the state Department of Agriculture contracted with the state Department of Ecology to monitor pesticide concentrations in salmon-bearing streams. Results of the three-year study will help determine any mitigation efforts that might be needed to reduce exposure.
As part of the program, three drainages in the Lower Yakima Valley watershed were monitored for agricultural pesticide use: Spring Creek, Sulphur Creek and Marion Drain. Thornton Creek in King County was monitored to represent pesticide use in an urban watershed.
The report showed that five pesticides exceeded clean water guidelines established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Three pesticides found in the agricultural watershed exceeded so-called chronic standards, which means the pesticides must be present for a certain period to cause harm. One pesticide in the urban watershed violated chronic standards.
The fifth pesticide, DDT, exceeded acute standards in the agricultural watershed. That means the pesticide need only be present to pose a risk.
In completing the study, agriculture officials only considered the EPA clean water standards and no others, Schreder said.
"I believe other pesticides probably exceed other standards in these streams as well," she said.
Moran said the study was designed only as an endangered species study, and that nothing should be assumed from data gained in just the first year.
"I see the exposures going down over time. I think that's good news for the growers, and I think we should acknowledge that as such," she said. "Obviously, we hope the residues continue to go down."
In both watersheds, samples were taken weekly from April through June 2003. In the Lower Yakima Valley, biweekly sampling continued through the summer of 2003. The agencies are now midway through the second year of the project. | 
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