To some people, herbicides are chemical miracles that get rid of weeds without the back-breaking work of pulling them by hand.

To others, they are poisons harmful to the environment and humans that should be replaced with organic solutions.

For the city of Anacortes, herbicide use is more complicated than a yes or no proposition.

For years it has used chemicals to kill weeds, but at the same time it’s looking at how to use fewer herbicides without letting weeds buckle sidewalks and take over parks. The approach is similar to what many cities and counties, and the state, have adopted.

But residents like Casey Bazewick say the city should get greener — and do a better job notifying people when and where herbicides will be used.

The Anacortes public works department controls weeds with the use of herbicides along with mowing and weed eating. It’s necessary to control the weed seeds before they make their way into cracks in the streets and sidewalks and cause permanent damage, said operations manager Sandi Andersen.

“If you don’t control them, they break up the roads, the sidewalks,” said Fred Buckenmeyer, city public works director. “But we do have a very minimalistic approach to it.”

The public works department uses Roundup, made by the Monsanto Company. The city purchases a concentrate of the chemical and dilutes it for use on streets, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, on the perimeters of catch basin rings in gutter lines, right of ways, main arterials and other city property showing signs of weed growth.

Crews do not spray directly into people’s yards, Buckenmeyer said.

The spraying is done with a low pressure hand wand from a small golf cart-like vehicle. The application is done only when it is dry out so water does not carry the herbicide downstream, said Andrew Klingman, city street and sewer lead.

The city chooses to use Roundup because it is a general broadleaf, widely used and recognized herbicide, Klingman said. It is one of the least harmful solutions when dry, based on the information from classes he and other public works employees have attended on the use of herbicides through the Washington State University extension.

They attend a three-day class initially to receive a certificate from the Washington State Department of Agriculture to apply herbicides. They keep up their certification each year with additional two-day classes. They learn about weeds, safe application of herbicides, proper record keeping and Integrated Pest Management.

IPM “is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

City employees make the rounds through the city about twice a season to treat areas with weeds. It takes anywhere from two to three weeks per application depending on the weather.

The city does not spray if it’s raining or if the winds exceed 10 mph, and then it’s only done April through September, Andersen said.

The public works department has been using some form of Roundup for approximately 22 years. It goes through a maximum of 20 gallons of concentrate per year at a cost of about $700 a year, though the amount also varies with the weather, Klingman said.

The department has cut back its use by approximately 25 percent in the past 10 years, Andersen said.

Buckenmeyer said the city tries to use as little of the herbicide as possible while still being effective at controlling the weeds.

However, residents like Bazewick said they shouldn’t be using any chemical herbicides. The reason being is they’re dangerous to humans, animals and aquatic creatures.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, glyphosate, the main ingredient in herbicides like Roundup, in the short term can potentially cause congestion of the lungs or increase breathing rate in people exposed to it at levels above the maximum contaminant level, which is set at 0.7 parts per million. In the long term, glyphosate has the potential to cause kidney damage or reproductive effects.

The Roundup label itself states that it is harmful to aquatic invertibrates.

Bazewick said some studies have shown that sprayed herbicides can travel sometimes more than 100 feet.

Kristie Hines, Bazewick’s wife, is concerned for dogs, whose owners may be letting them out into a yard without knowing the area was just sprayed.

One of Bazewick’s biggest concerns with the city’s use of herbicides is the lack of notification of when, where and what it sprays.

The public works department has recently posted a weed control fact sheet on the city’s Web site addressing some of Bazewick’s questions. But it does not provide a schedule of exactly when it sprays because the schedule is too weather dependent.

Other entities, such as Whatcom County, posts signs informing people a week beforehand when they will be spraying and then update the signs to let people know when an area was sprayed.

Hines suggested Anacortes at least put notices in residents’ utility bills to notify them when and where it will be spraying.

Bazewick says there are other changes the city can make to reduce the risk of harm from herbicides. One is to daub plants with the chemical solution rather than spray them, thereby cutting down the chances of it spreading.

Another suggestion Bazewick had was for the city to clean out cracks in streets and sidewalks and then caulk them. The method would be more effective than driving around and spaying year after year, he said.

He also suggested it use a high-grade vinegar to kill the weeds or simply hand pull them.

Any vinegar solution used to kill weeds would have to be too acidic for employees to handle, Buckenmeyer said. The city also does not have the manpower to keep up with weeds if they were only hand pulled.

The city parks department does employ a worker whose only job in the spring and fall is to pull weeds. Sue Athmann works for about four hours a day Monday through Friday, pulling weeds at Causland Memorial Park, the police station, library and at Grand View Cemetery.

“It’s very Zen. My world is very small,” Athmann said of pulling weeds. “It’s so basic — just you and the dandelions. There’s not much more to it than that.”

But she added that sometimes she’s looking at a field of dandelions and thinks “bring it (herbicides) on.”

“I’m on and off the fence on that one,” she said.

The city does not have the staff to pull weeds by hand exclusively, Athmann said. And residents want their parks green and weedless.

The parks department also uses glyphosate, because it has some of the fewest problems as far as leaching into the soil and doesn’t last as long as other herbicides, according to information from the state licensing class, said Operations/Forest Lands manager Jonn Lunsford.

His department went through about 1.5 gallons of glyphosate concentrate in 2008. That amount has declined each year since 2004 when the department used 13.25 gallons.

“Jonn is doing his best to go the organic route,” Athmann said. “They do what they do with what they’re given.”

Employees apply the herbicide in parks and other areas, including at Grand View Cemetery, the sewer lift station, W.T. Preston grounds, fire stations, the waste water treatment plant and along the Tommy Thompson Trail.

The department also applies as much of the IPM approach to weed control as it can, Lunsford said. Aside from using chemical herbicides, employees mow often and use mulch, sometimes up to 6-inches of mulch like it does at Causland.

It has also tried, without success, using organic products such as corn gluten meal and weed killer made from clove oil and vinegar, Lunsford said.

However, it has had some success with organic fertilizer. The department began experimenting with organic fertilizers at Storvik Park a few years back. After checking with specialists in the field, the department changed its approach from going full force with 100 percent organic fertilizer, to instead using a combination of chemical and organic to wean the park off of what had been used there for decades.

This year, the city will use 100 percent organic fertilizer at the park, and will begin using a combination of chemical and organic at Volunteer Park, Ace of Hearts Creek Park and the Pennsylvania Avenue park with the intent of phasing them to 100 percent organic, Lunsford said.

“We’re trying to do more and more organic things, but it’s not like you decide you’re going to and do it and it works,” said parks director Gary Robinson.

It’s also a matter of balancing the views of the community, Lunsford said. Some residents want the city to use chemical products while some do not, but all use the parks.

Lunsford has also sought help from other municipalities to see how they control weeds. Many use herbicides, but like the city of Olympia, they try to use it sparingly.

Sam Baker, a lead worker in Olympia’s parks department, said the city uses a limited amount of herbicide and when it does, it uses Roundup because it’s “reasonably less toxic than other things,” he said. Other weed control measures they use include cardboard and mulching on top of weed infestations and pulling weeds by hand or burning the ones in cracks of sidewalks and streets with a propane torch.

“There are so many ways to control weeds without it (herbicide) and it seems like the right thing to do,” he said.

The Skagit County Noxious Weeds Board advocates the proper use of herbicides.

The Washington State Department of Transportation “selectively” uses herbicides, recognizing “there may be potential impacts to health and the environment,” according to its Web site. The agency uses herbicides to maintain a vegetation-free strip at the edge of pavement and to selectively control and eliminate undesirable plants. But it is also reviewing alternatives with research through the University of Washington.

There are alternatives if people are willing to look for them, Hines said.

In Anacortes, owners have two options if they do not want the city to spray herbicides near their property. One is they can post a sign, which is available through the city, stating “Owner will maintain.”

If a property owner has the sign posted and has maintained the area, the city will leave it alone, Andersen said. If they don’t maintain it, the city will not automatically go out and spray. Instead, staff will contact the owner beforehand to let them know.

“We just wouldn’t hit them with it,” Andersen said.

The second option for people concerned about herbicides is to get on the state’s registry of Pesticide Sensitivity with a physician’s certification.

Bazewick and Hines have an owner will maintain sign in their yard and are in the process of getting on the state’s list that requires the city to notify them within two hours of when they will be spraying adjacent property to theirs.

Owner will maintain

To get a sign indicating a property owner will maintain the right of way for weed control, call public works operations at 293-1921.

Call the same number to speak to one of the city’s certified employees about its use of herbicides.

To get on Washington State’s Pesticide Sensitivity Registry, go to http://agr.wa.gov/PestFert/Pesticides/SensitivityRegistry.aspx.