Herriman City Unpermitted Pesticide Use Caused Fish Kill

The unpermitted application of a pesticide on June 19 by Herriman City likely resulted in a June 24 fish kill event at Cove Pond, according to a Sep. 18 warning letter issued by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Herriman City maintains and stocks the pond used by local residents for recreational fishing. At least 500 fish were estimated to have been killed in the June 24 event. The letter:

Expanding Frontiers Research obtained a copy of the warning letter as the result of a public records request submitted to the DEQ. The records released include an image of the label of the product that was used, Teton, an aquatic algaecide and herbicide containing the active ingredient endothall. Records obtained also include reports and analysis, dozens of digital images, and agency emails indicating Cove Pond was stocked with some 120 large catfish between the time of the chemical application and just prior to the fish kill event. Residents were warned not to fish the pond or eat any recently caught fish.

EFR reached out for comment to the recipient of the DEQ warning letter, Anthony Teuscher, Deputy Director of Parks and Events for Herriman City. The following statement was subsequently provided in an Oct. 8 email received from Communications Manager and Public Information Officer Jonathan LaFollette:

Herriman City is committed to the responsible management of all its facilities, including the Cove Pond. The incident this summer involved the application of a pesticide that inadvertently impacted the pond's fish population. We acknowledge the state's letter regarding the application and have taken immediate steps to ensure that all future facility treatments comply with necessary state permitting processes. We appreciate the partnership and guidance from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and other state agencies as we continually work to enhance our practices. Our goal remains to maintain a safe and healthy environment for both residents and local wildlife.

A request was submitted to DEQ after responsive records were first received from the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR). Records initially obtained from DWR include images of the fish kill event, personnel messages exchanged, and talking points provided to the press. The talking points referenced an investigation undertaken by DEQ, resulting in EFR submitting a request and subsequently obtaining the Sep. 18 warning letter issued to Herriman City. DEQ noted in its response to EFR that the warning letter had not yet been sent at the time the EFR request was submitted.

Workers remove what they estimated to be at least 500 dead fish from Cove Pond

Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment

Dr. Brian Moench is the President of the Board of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. He says commonly used chemicals – including many approved by the Environmental Protection Agency – are often still toxic and harmful beyond the target use. Moreover, those who apply the chemicals often lack adequate education and training.

“A couple of months ago,” Dr. Moench told EFR in an Oct. 17 email, “Salt Lake City had a tragic event where about 200 trees along North Temple died because 'the wrong herbicide' was sprayed around the base of the trees by someone who was, nonetheless, a 'certified sprayer.' It will be two years before the contaminated soil can be expected to support replanting. And in June, Cove Pond in Herriman was sprayed with an 'aquatic herbicide' intended to kill algae, that ended up killing hundreds of fish in the pond.

“These two events are examples of how pesticides (herbicides and insecticides) are indeed poisons that affect the broader biological world, inevitably causing harm far beyond the target organisms.”

The idea that widely distributing biological poisons would leave beneficial plants, animals, and humans unharmed was always wishful thinking, Moench contends. It never made scientific sense, and a growing body of research is confirming how the danger of pesticides is likely exponentially greater than ever before.

Dead fish line the Cove Pond shore following the June 24 kill

“A second dimension of concern emerged in the 1990s with research that showed many pesticides were also endocrine disruptors, i.e. they mimicked or antagonized critical human hormones at extremely low dose exposure, adding an entirely new level of scientific evidence of their harm to human health. Endocrine disruptors (EDCs) have been identified as causing a wide spectrum of harm, especially at the earliest, most critical stages of human development; in utero, infancy, and childhood. Because of this research, in 1996, Congress mandated EPA test all pesticides for endocrine disruption potential. In 2024, 28 years later, that still has not happened and EPA’s regulatory process largely ignores the issue. Independent researchers meanwhile have strengthened the evidence of harm from endocrine disruptors.”

But now a third dimension of public health harm from pesticides has emerged in the last few years, Moench continued, and it almost certainly dwarfs the previous two. “Scientists from throughout the world are finding PFAS ('forever chemicals') in many of the most commonly used pesticides. EPA has stated essentially there is no safe level of exposure to PFAS chemicals. The presence of PFAS in pesticides can be both intentional and inadvertent, i.e. intentionally incorporated into the active ingredient or the inactive ingredients used to enhance efficacy, or from unintentional leaching from storage containers.

“The now well recognized serious health consequences of forever chemicals must be added to the equation of whether the risks outweigh the benefits of pesticide use. In short, those health consequences include developmental disorders, reproductive toxicity, increased risk for multiple cancers, immunosuppression, endocrine, liver, and metabolic disorders, and damage to the brain and nervous system.”

The North Temple and Herriman events have overt, easily recognizable tragic outcomes in dead fish and dead trees, Moench concluded. “But inevitably, with almost any use of pesticides, humans are exposed as well. Herbicides that are formulated to be used in aquatic circumstances, but are still capable of killing fish, are almost certainly also capable of harm to humans. But all environmental toxins have the greatest potential to cause harm at very low concentrations when exposure occurs during critical developmental windows, i.e. to pregnant mothers and their babies in utero, infants, and children. Any environmental toxins that can cause developmental harm should be considered by society to represent an unacceptable hazard. That is all the more true given that many pesticides are now proven to be endocrine disruptors, and/or versions of 'forever chemicals.'”

Dr. Brian Moench further discusses forever chemicals starting at the 39:25 mark of his June 14 appearance on Expanding Frontiers with Erica Lukes: