30 June 2008

Dunne - If 1080's safe, endosulfan is too!

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne has consoled Green Party MP Sue Kedgley that she is definitely not the first person to be shocked by ERMA's liberal toxin reassessment decisions.

"I sympathise with Mrs Kedgley and assure her that we have been down this path before and had no joy in convincing ERMA of the danger of aerially applying 1080 either," said Mr Dunne.

"Next month there are two aerial 1080 drops planned, both of which are targeted around public water supplies."

"One is down for the catchment area that feeds into Kumara's water supply, while there is also a planned aerial drop on the Ohau River catchment, above Levin's water supply."

According to ERMA's rules on 1080, a town's water supply does not include the catchment - only the reservoir and its immediate intake.

"To me, this seems a ridiculously lenient and entirely unnecessary concession, 1080 is a highly dangerous poison that demands the utmost caution."

"The recent spate of building evacuations in Wellington is testament to that."

"In can understand the frustration of the Green Party in relation to the reassessment of endosulfan. UnitedFuture went through the same thing with 1080, the whole process was a whitewash," said Mr Dunne.

ENDS

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