Despite the fact that City of St. Albert staff used protective gear while dosing poplar saplings with herbicides last week, the chemicals used are considered low-risk to humans, a public works supervisor says.
"The staff worker was using protective garb because she works throughout the day and she was using best safety procedures. She was using one of the newer generations of herbicides called Milestone, which is an aminopyralid. It is not federally restricted," said public works operations supervisor Darrell Symbaluk, who also said aminopyralid chemicals kill broadleaf plants and not grass.
Symbaluk was responding to comments made in a letter to the St. Albert Gazette from Sonja Cloutier, who worries about the potential health effects to children in the vicinity when the substance is applied to the trees.
"I was driving west at 8:30 a.m. on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue last Thursday and saw them spraying the tree suckers in school zones. They were not on school property; they were spraying on the easement along the fence line," said Cloutier.
Cloutier believes the substance could be dangerous for children and phoned public works to complain.
"I was really upset. I don't have an issue with them spraying, because I understand that some people want the boulevards to look manicured, but why do it during school hours? Why are there no signs?" she asked.
According to Cloutier, city staff told her the herbicide used was a glyphosate called Vantage Plus II, but Symbaluk disputes that claim.
"It was not Roundup. It was not Vantage Plus. It was not a glyphosate," he said, as he explained that the saplings were spot treated with Milestone and there was no overall broadcasting or spraying of the chemical.
"We were not boom spraying. We were using a wand and treating one shoot at a time. It is an isolated procedure," he said, adding that, according to the Milestone label, the herbicide is specifically designed for pasture use and is not considered harmful to livestock.
"There are no grazing restrictions for any livestock, including lactating animals," he said, stressing at the same time that a diluted dosage was used.
"We use it at the rate of 0.5 litres per hectare and it is extremely low risk."
Normally city staff places warning signs in schoolyards or in playing fields 48 hours before a chemical is sprayed. The signs remain on site for a further 48 hours after the procedure is completed. Symbaluk could not say why no signs were in place in this instance.
"When we are spraying on the median, we don't necessarily put up signs," he said, adding that crews will continue treatment along roadways to prevent the saplings from growing.
"On any road where poplars were taken down, we will continue to clean them up this fall," Symbaluk said.
But Cloutier maintains that the public is entitled to know when chemicals are used in public places.
"I wouldn't want my kids to walk near it," she said.
