A Lane County Judge this week ruled a proposed ballot measure to ban aerial spraying of herbicides is not lawful.
Judge Karsten Rasmussen said the initiative violates Oregon’s “separate vote requirement” because it tries to cover too many issues.
Anne Kneeland is an attorney representing the backers of the initiative. She says Community Rights Lane County and the Lane County Freedom From Aerial Herbicides Alliance, plan to appeal the ruling.
“This is a very committed and dedicated group of people that are not easily deterred.” Kneeland says, “And they will push on in their efforts for their community to allow them to write laws to protect their health, safety and welfare and stop corporate harms like the aerial spraying of herbicides that poisons the residents, the rivers, the waters, the air, the soil and everything.”
The groups collected about 15-thousand signatures to put the measure on the May primary ballot. But, Lane County Counsel Stephen Dingle said the proposal didn’t meet the “separate vote requirement”. The initiative backers asked Judge Rasmussen to review that decision.
