State to look anew at mosquito control rules

YAKIMA, Wash. -- State environmental officials are promising to revise proposed mosquito control rules that drew the ire of critics, but aren't offering to extend the public comment period.

Based on nearly 500 public comments in recent weeks, the state Department of Ecology said it will rethink its proposed limits on spraying for adult mosquitoes. Those changes may allow mosquito control districts to spray adult mosquitoes near water regardless of whether they carry disease or not, said Sandy Howard, an Ecology Department spokeswoman in Olympia.

"It's looking like we're going in that direction," Howard said.

In the past, mosquito districts throughout Washington have used insecticides to kill both mosquito larvae and adults in and around water.

However, to comply with the federal Clean Water Act, the state agency had proposed a new permitting process banning districts from spraying mosquitoes near creeks, ponds and other bodies of water unless they carried a disease, such as West Nile virus.

The rules would not have affected larval control, considered less toxic to aquatic life.

But mosquito districts, residents and state lawmakers argued that even aggressive larval measures allow some adults to hatch and that waiting for lab tests to confirm disease would give time for mosquitoes to breed.

"We did hear loud and clear that nuisance mosquitoes and disease-carrying mosquitoes may be one in the same," Howard said.

The biggest concern is West Nile virus, which has been repeatedly detected in birds, horses and people in the Prosser and Grandview areas. Last fall, there were at least 30 confirmed cases of the virus in people in Yakima and Benton counties. One 71-year-old Sunnyside woman died from the disease, although it's not clear where she contracted the illness.

About 20 members of the state House of Representatives asked Ecology officials to allow more public comment on the issue.

The department is turning down that request to insure publishing the new rules before mosquito season. They aim to finish the regulations by June, Howard said.