De Lisle fails in his bid to ban weedkiller glyphosate

There were seven votes in favour of a requete to outlaw the chemical by the end of this year.

Deputy David De Lisle, the lead requerant, claimed islanders did not have adequate confidence about levels of glyphosate in drinking water: ‘The chemical is damaging to health and biodiversity.

'This poisonous spray is carried by the wind into our homes, settling all around us and propagating a slow death to the surrounding wildlife. It kills the grass. It kills the roots of crops. It kills the life in the soil.

'Why are we allowing a handful of farmers and a small group of landscape gardeners to use this chemical indiscriminately all over the island?’

He said allowing the use of glyphosate could result in drinking water restrictions and even the need to import in the future.

But on behalf of Guernsey Water and the States’ Trading Supervisory Board, Deputy Peter Roffey said his colleague was ‘at risk of causing panic and concern among the public of Guernsey’.

'There is massive testing of water samples in Guernsey and there hasn’t been a single instance of drinking water coming close to exceeding the recommended limits of glyphosate.’

Policy & Resources president Peter Ferbrache warned that banning all uses of glyphosate ahead of most of the rest of the world would damage the island’s external trade relations. External relations lead Jonathan Le Tocq had earlier told deputies to ‘forget trying to grow our economy or trying to open doors’ if they backed the requete. He said that the island could not be a leader in this area.

Their P&R colleague Mark Helyar, also the island’s first water quality officer, was a requete signatory.

‘Glyphosate is being used by lots of farmers at the moment because it’s an easy option. That’s just laziness I’m afraid. It’s causing a risk to the environment. It is acknowledged to be a dangerous chemical. I’m sure there are lots of members of the public who don’t want these kind of chemicals in their water supply.’

Several deputies predicted that banning glyphosate would unintentionally increase the use of more dangerous chemicals.

Deputy Adrian Gabriel said that glyphosate had been widely studied, was safe if used as instructed, and if removed, could be replaced by unknown alternatives which might cause more problems.

Glyphosate has already been banned from domestic use but is still used professionally. Deputy Christopher Le Tissier was unhappy about this.

‘I don’t see as a matter of fairness why large-scale users of glyphosate, such as farmers, should be allowed to pour hundreds of gallons onto our water table while banning Mrs Le Page to the Vale from keeping a few weeds off her drive,’ he said.

Closing debate, Deputy De Lisle said: ‘All our actions as a result of this debate are accountable. It’s your individual responsibility. You’ve been told.’