Citizen challenges council on use of mosquito chemical

A Lovell citizen concerned about the effects of chemicals used in mosquito spraying took his concerns to the Lovell Town Council at the regular August meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 11.

Noth has been writing letters to the editor in the Lovell Chronicle, but he also went before the council August 11 during public comments to explain his issues to the council. He said he went to town hall and was provided the specifications of one of the chemicals used in Lovell for mosquito control – Permanone.

“If you look under number seven, at the very bottom it says ‘Toxic, may cause cancer.’ Well, if you buy a pack of cigarettes, it says on the side ‘may cause lung cancer.’ Well, we know it does,” Noth said, referring to the chemical label. “They have to do that to protect themselves from lawsuits.

“Number six. It’s at the top. It says this product is highly toxic to fish. It should not be applied where water is. We’ve got a water park, and he drives right past there, spreading the stuff. We don’t need that. It’s highly toxic to bees and says do not direct treatment on blooming crops or weeds. I had a family of bumblebees living underneath one of my trees. They’re dead.”

Noth said he also believes the chemicals killed a peach tree he had been given and planted in his yard, noting that the four-foot tree had new leaves, but when the sprayer went by, the tree was dead the next morning.

Noth read another portion of the label stating that the chemical can cause “an increase in liver tumors and throat cancer in women,” and he added, “Do we really want to give our women throat cancer and liver cancer?”

He said he searched for non-toxic spray on the internet, but one company had 300 complaints against it.

“Hopefully, the city can work it out, (that) somebody can research this and find a non-toxic mosquito spray that will work,” he said. “My arm is chewed up from mosquitoes from working my garden, so it’s not killing the mosquitoes at all. It doesn’t kill yellowjackets. They’re everywhere, but the honeybees, yeah, they’re history.”

Noth invited the mayor and council to stop by his house to see the effect of the chemical on his plants.

“My trees have brown leaves. They have spots on them,” he said. “They have yellow leaves where they’re dying and falling off. This is middle of summer, and I’m not the only person that’s having the problem with the trees and everything else dying.”

Mayor Tom Newman thanked Noth for coming and said he would have the town crew address the issue.

Thunder Ranch

Also under public comments, Mayor Newman welcomed Tony Alvarez from the Thunder Ranch firearms and tactical training company. Thunder Ranch spent four days in Lovell working with various agencies, holding a Tac-Med/Tactical Emergency Casualty Care training August 8-9 and a rifle and pistol course August 10-11.

“The Tac-Med class was filled with law enforcement from Lovell Police Department, deputies from the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Department, paramedics and EMTs from North Big Horn Hospital, an SRO and security from Billings Clinic,” Town Administrator Jed Nebel said in a follow-up email to the Chronicle. “We had a fantastic mix of local professionals that got to work together if a mass casualty event like this ever presented itself. You cannot put a price on the benefit of a training like this.

“I would like to note that the shooting portion of the training was truly a community effort. We received generous cash and in-kind donations from Midway Construction, Bairco Construction, GK Construction and an anonymous cash donor. These contributions allowed us to build a new law-enforcement centered training area at the Lovell Rod & Gun Club that will serve our community for years to come.

“When members of Thunder Ranch witnessed the community support behind the project, they generously sponsored multiple training positions, including positions for members of the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office, whose budget did not allow for this training. It was truly an amazing opportunity to see so many individuals and organizations come together to make this training possible.”

Alvarez noted that Thunder Ranch also conducted classes in Lovell last year and that this year’s classes were able to build on the courses from a year ago.

“We have identified some areas that we can assist with going forward and continue to assist with, helping elevate everybody’s abilities and performances,” he told the council. “It’s a pleasure for us to be here and to help with elevating those standards and expand the possibilities for not only training but also for protecting the citizens of this town and this county. And this year, compared to last year, we had additional resources that came in. The synergies that we saw this year from last year were exponentially higher, and that was a great thing to see. So it wasn’t just ‘Oh, Lovell’s just doing this.’ Now everybody’s seeing what they’re doing, and now they’re jumping in, as well. My hope is and my belief is that, with this new range and the new groups that were in this, it’s just going to continue to expand.”

Alvarez was impressed with the new training range at the Rod & Gun Club.

“I live in California. I grew up in Hawaii, but I live in California, and I can tell you that I’ve never seen anybody put together a range, a fully operational range in four days,” he said. “This town did that, and it would take four years for us to do that down south. And you guys did it in four days, which is pretty amazing.”

Mayor Newman participated in the training as a leader in the Search and Rescue squad.

“They did a mass casualty chaos scene, and we used the old swim building,” the mayor said. “It’s real-life scenarios. You walk in and there’s strobe lights and loud music going and people screaming. I mean, it’s the chaos that would occur in a mass casualty situation and trying to make heads or tails of it. And you know, theoretically, you think, ‘oh yeah, I’d be OK’ in that right up until you’re not.

“We appreciate their efforts. They’ve really gone above and beyond, and this is top-notch, top-tier training.”