EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — State health officials are going to study two herbicides commonly used in forest management that have been found in residents of the Triangle Lake area of the Coast Range west of Eugene.
The Register-Guard reports the herbicides have shown up in the urine of dozens of residents of the Highway 36 corridor.
State Department of Agriculture officials say Gov. John Kitzhaber has taken an interest in the issue, directing health officials who are part of the state’s Pesticide Analytical Response Center to take the lead in studying the matter.
A Triangle Lake area resident and a group of activists called the Pitchfork Rebellion have been complaining for more than seven years about the possibility that herbicides aerially sprayed on nearby private forests may be drifting onto their land.
