DEQ officials say they are not staffed to visit every complaint site. The hitch with herbicides is that no one seems to know the extent of danger. These are chemicals that, as far as experts know, aren't harmful if they're applied properly and people are warned. But there's little regulation. The possibility for them to be misapplied and overly applied is strong.
Some people link disease to exposure to too many chemicals, but it's an elusive thing to prove.
Gangnier, for one, said that all the assurances in the world don't convince her that herbicides are totally safe because science is always changing. But following up on numerous complaints from citizens about aquatic herbicides is difficult for the four people who process permits. Last year, DEQ regulators were able to visit 59 of the lakes that were treated with aquatic herbicides. The regulators checked 34 lakes for the accuracy of descriptions of natural features in the water, in paperwork filed by herbicide applicators. Twenty-two of the 34 applications reviewed had a total of 42 problems.