Resident Update: Pesticide Records Request and LARMAC Response
Resident Contributor: This article was written by a Ladera Ranch resident who is actively participating in the community's ongoing research and outreach efforts. Updates are based on information available at the time of publication and will be revised as new information becomes available. Residents also asked LARMAC to vote on discontinuing Lifeline, a glufosinate-ammonium herbicide. Lifeline is one of the products we are most concerned about because it appears to be used frequently in Ladera Ranch common areas and because glufosinate is not approved for use in the European Union and is classified there as suspected of damaging fertility or the unborn child.
LARMAC has not agreed to stop using Lifeline and refused to put the issue up for a vote at the upcoming board meeting.
What LARMAC told residents vs. what the posted notices show
When these concerns were first raised, LARMAC’s General Manager wrote that LARMAC’s routine pest management program was “limited in scope” and consisted of only two products: one weed-control product and one plant-growth regulator.
Since then, residents were able to locate June spray records showing 17 different pesticide, herbicide, rodenticide, fumigant, and plant-growth-regulator products used in Ladera Ranch in one month.
A chart built entirely from LARMAC’s own posted application notices is attached below for context. These are currently the only records residents have been able to obtain regarding this issue.
To be clear: we are not saying pesticides caused any specific illness. Residents are still looking at all angles, including water, soil, pesticides, nearby environmental sites, and whatever the California Cancer Registry is able to determine.
But we do believe the repeated use of multiple toxic products in a community full of children deserves scrutiny, especially when there are sick children and a relatively basic solution.
What we are asking for
Other Orange County cities and communities have already moved away from these types of chemical programs and toward organic or reduced-risk landscape practices, including Irvine, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, and Laguna Woods.
Ladera Ranch does not need to invent anything new. We are asking LARMAC to follow existing models and take the following steps:
Provide residents with existing records showing what pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fumigants, and plant-growth regulators have been used in Ladera Ranch common areas, where they were used, when they were used, and in what amounts.
Stop using Lifeline / glufosinate-ammonium in Ladera Ranch common areas.
Move Ladera Ranch toward an organic or reduced-risk landscape program modeled on communities that have already done this.
Provide clear, timely, readable notice before and after chemical applications so residents know what is being applied in their neighborhoods.
Place this issue on a public LARMAC board meeting agenda for discussion and a vote.
We are asking for transparency, precaution, and a safer approach to landscape maintenance in a community where thousands of children live, play, walk to school, use parks, and spend time in shared common areas.