Grand Forks will reconsider enacting a cosmetic pesticide ban in the city.
City council agreed to explore it this fall after hearing a second time from local resident advocate Christina Abbott.
Abbott is optimistic following her emotional plea to council to reconsider its February decision.
“At this time I’m going to take that as a positive. So I’m looking at this delay, although it seems to be quite lengthy, maybe it’s because they don’t have enough support staff to do the research that they need to do,” Abbott told Vista Radio.
Abbott says there’s a reason more than 60 other B.C. communities have banned the use of cosmetic pesticides.
She also presented council with new information on March 4 about the region’s water table.
“So that opened up another new whole avenue. We’re sitting on the most incredible aquifer in the Province of British Columbia and one that they deemed 10 years ago extremely vulnerable to contamination,” she said.
During the discussion, Coun. David Mark approved of the concept but was not comfortable just enacting a template bylaw. Fellow councillors agreed to postpone a decision until the fall to give time for research and to confirm information from Abbott’s presentation.
Abbott plans to explore the hydrogeological study and its recommendations in more detail this summer as she awaits council’s next action. “I’m going to the spend my time reading…and see what doors open there.”
“I’m going to stay positive and say that this is a positive thing and that they’re going to do their homework and find that, yeah, we gotta protect the citizens and their homes, their pets, everything,” Abbott said.
City staff are expected to bring a sample bylaw to a meeting in October after doing some research into the ban already in place in Kamloops.
“You know everybody wants victory right away, right? I’m going to just stay positive and look at this from a positive and hope for a wonderful and positive result for the citizens of Grand Forks.”
