THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY GF PORT COQUITLAM

Re: Pesticides ~2- July 9/81

Consequences of not using these chemicals could result in
minor damage to private property, loss of income from agricultural
land, and numerous nuisance complaints to the City. The alternative
to doing nothing would be to use extra mechanical equipment and
labor to take care of these problems.

It is hard to assess the costs of using alternate means
in this category because it would depend to a certain extent on
the number of nuisance complaints received. However, as a minimum
we would be required to spend about $25,000 on new equipment and
two to three thousand dollars per year on labor and machine time
for extra mowing of the dyke.

Preservation

The use of. pesticides in this category is to prevent
ixrecoverable damage to City property and facilities. As an
example one could consider: trees which become infested with insects
to the point that they die or playing fields which become unusable.
Chemicals which fall into this category are Malathion, Diazinon,

Cygon, Nillc«, Feed and weed.

This is by far the most serious problem category and the
elimination of the use of these chemicals will cause serious
problems for the City. Small trees which become infested are
relatively easy to replace although at some cost. Large trees
which die cannot be replaced. If clover takes hold in the playing
fields it will crowd out the grass. Clover does not provide a
satisfactory turf and the grass will not last through a winter of
regular use. Therefore, we would find that we would soon have to
replace the sod on playing fields as Prince George and Richmond
have found. If Council would take a look at the Thompson Park
playing field they would see that clover is already starting to
take hold around the edges because we have not sprayed this year.

The alternatives available for tree spraying are non-toxic
chemicals such as Lime Sulphur and dormant oi1. However, to he
effective these chemicals would have to be sprayed in the winter
time on every tree in order to be assured of controlling the problem
as opposed to the use of other chemicals on a selective basis only
where the problem occurs. There are no practical alternatives to
control the growth of clover and other weeds in playing fields.
Therefore, an assessment of the costs would have to include the
cost of rebuilding the playing fields on a periodic basis. This