UPDATE: The Kauai County Council will reconvene on Tuesday, October 15 at 9 a.m. to continue deliberations on BIll 2491.

Not able to make it to Lihue? No worries. You can stream the Kauai County Council hearing on Bill 2491 .

Frustrated by lax state oversight of pesticides, Kauai County Council members have moved forward on their own proposals.

You can read Civil Beat’s story on state versus county oversight of pesticides here: Does Hawaii’s Failure to Enforce Pesticide Use Justify Action by Kauai?

The bill requires the county’s heaviest users of restricted-use pesticides to disclose details of their pesticide use. This includes the county’s four biotech companies — Syngenta, DuPont-Pioneer, Dow and BASF — and Kauai Coffee Co. It also creates buffer zones between fields being sprayed with pesticides and public areas, including schools, waterways and roads. And it requires the county to conduct studies on whether pesticides are contaminating the environment and harming human health.

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Photo: Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho testifies before the Kauai County Council ()

— Sophie Cocke

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