Watsonville bans Roundup use on city properties

The City of Watsonville is taking a major step against troubled weed killer Roundup.

After seeing lawsuit after lawsuit targeting the product, the city council unanimously voted to ban the use of Roundup by city staff for weed removal.

Before banning Roundup entirely from city-owned land, Watsonville had already reduced the use of the product by 49 percent. But the council’s vote, strengthening restrictions for the weed killer accused of major health risks, comes as good news for one Watsonville parent.

“I’m really happy to hear that it passed because I don’t want my family walking along the Pajaro River area where there’s that nice bike path, and we have a puppy that likes to go in the bushes,” said Erin Levi, a Watsonville resident.

Roundup contains the chemical Glyphosate, which the World Health Organization believes can cause cancer.

“I just know that back in the days, my grandpa was an orchard farmer. He eventually did get cancer and it was in his lymph nodes, and he did pass away of cancer,” said Levi. “And when I hear about Roundup over the years… I’ve never personally used it, but I know that was one thing my grandfather said was stay away from Roundup.”

“I think a lot of the council thought that given the health risks and the costs associated with Roundup, I think the analysis was we’d rather prefer to ban the Roundup,” said Felipe Hernandez, a Watsonville city councilmember.

The city is banning Roundup on all city weed-killing efforts.

“Parks, medians, parklets, the trails that we have, the airport, different facilities that have greenways,” said Hernandez.

But it will not bar residents from using the product themselves. The city, however, is planning to launch a warning about Roundup’s apparent dangers.

The ban is effective July 1. The city is already discussing alternatives to Roundup.