Bill would repeal Kauai’s voided GMO law

The Kauai County Council will address a proposal to repeal a new county law pertaining to pesticide use and genetically modified crops that a federal judge recently ruled invalid.

On Wednesday the Council will hear the first reading of Bill 2562, which would repeal Ordinance 960, which regulates the use of pesticides and cultivation of genetically modified crops by large-scale commercial enterprises.

Bill 2562 was introduced by Councilmen Ross Kagawa and Mel Rapozo, both of whom voted in November 2013 against overriding Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s veto of Bill 2491 (Ordinance 960). In vetoing the bill, Carvalho had described it as legally flawed.

Before the new county law took effect, seed companies Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer, BASF Plant Science LP and Agrigenetics Inc., doing business as Dow AgroSciences, filed a lawsuit in federal court contending that the law was invalid.

In August, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren ruled that the new county law is pre-empted by state law.

An appeal filed in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in September by the county and four nonprofit organizations — Ka Makani Ho‘o­pono­pono, the Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network North America and the Surfrider Foundation — challenges Kurren’s decision. That appeal is pending.

Kagawa and Rapozo maintain that the Court of Appeals will uphold Kurren’s ruling.

"I feel the appeal has no chance," Kagawa said.

Ordinance 960 requires commercial agricultural companies that use more than 5 pounds or 15 gallons of restricted-use pesticides annually to disclose the types of pesticides sprayed on their fields and to establish buffer zones near schools, dwellings, medical facilities, public roadways, shorelines and waterways.

Councilman Tim Bynum, who co-introduced Bill 2491 with Councilman Gary Hooser, said the Council voted in September to authorize moneys for the appeal.

In an email statement he asked, "Why put this question before the current majority, who just reaffirmed their commitment to continue efforts to protect residents’ health and safety by voting to appeal?"

The Council approved spending up to $12,750 for special counsel to represent the county in the matter.