Bernalillo County Commissioners Tuesday will consider allowing certain herbicides back into the county’s weed-killing toolbox.
A proposed revision to the county’s Integrated Vegetation Management and Maintenance Plan would allow the use of products containing glyphosate — a weed killer — ending a moratorium in place since 2019.
Commissioners in 2019 dropped those products, citing concerns about harm to people, wildlife and the environment. Their decision came about a year after a jury awarded a California man $289 million after determining his exposure to Monsanto Co.’s Roundup led to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
County land management staff has since used non-glyphosate products for weed control, according to the commission’s meeting agenda. Staff say those products are less effective, more expensive, more difficult to store and more hazardous to apply.
Staff says the number of weed related calls have increased over the past several years and the number of hours spent on weed control have substantially increased.
The agenda also says staff shortages and the county’s inability to identify a substitute herbicide or mechanical solution means weeds and weed seedbeds have increased in some places to the point they are unmanageable and possibly a hazard to the public.
The motion up for consideration would rescind the current glyphosate moratorium and replace it with new recommended glyphosate restrictions that would allow the spot use of glyphosate “as a last resort in high-hazard landscapes for the public and maintenance staff and in high-need landscapes where weeds have become
unmanageable.”