Saturday, June 6, 2009

County tries to find funds for mosquito control

Julia M. Dendinger News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jdendinger@news-bulletin.com

The county commission picked up the gauntlet thrown down by the citizenry and will once again do battle with the flying pests of the unincorporated areas of Valencia County.

On a unanimous vote Wednesday evening, the county commission agreed to reinstate the vector control program, mosquito spraying and larvae treatment, if it can find the money.

Due to budgetary constraints, the county opted not to renew the vector control contract with Albuquerque-based company Roadrunner Public Health, Inc. which is owned and operated by Dr. Phillip Sandoval.

The contract, which began in 2007, ran May through October and cost $2,099 per month for a total of $12,594 annually.

At the meeting, County Manager Eric Zamora said the contract was one of several programs the county reevaluated this budget cycle to make sure it was getting the most for its money.

"We looked at the effectiveness of the programs, accountability and the benefit of the programs," he said. "To my knowledge, the county has not received any annual filings, reports or accountability on this program."

Zamora said that it seemed the county has been paying out upwards of $2,000 per month, six months out of the year, for several years now with no indication of how the vector control program is benefiting the citizens of the county.

"Where are they spraying? What are they doing? What are the chemicals they are using?" Zamora said, listing some of the unanswered questions he had about the program. "Since I've been here, I have gotten calls from people concerned about their kids and animals being exposed to these chemicals."

The manager said the county was supplied a schedule of times the company sprayed but he has never seen a final audit or report of the service.

Commission chair Pedro Rael asked if there was any information available that could tell them whether there was a need for the service. Zamora said he has no data that shows the effectiveness of the vector control program.

"It could be affecting 85 percent of the population or 15 percent of the population," he said. "We have no data on that."

Is there any indication of where the service is needed, Commissioner Georgia Otero-Kirkham asked. "Is there some place that is a hot bed for mosquitoes?" she asked. "Are we talking about the wetter areas and farmland?"

Zamora said, according to information he had received, there was a large concentration of mosquitoes west of Belen in a marshy area, but that the major concerns are areas with standing water.

He continued, saying the county had contacted the New Mexico Environmental Department (NMED) to try and coordinate vector control efforts. "The state doesn't provide that service," Zamora said. "They leave it to the municipalities and counties."

Commissioner David Medina, whose southern district encompasses much of the farmland south of Belen, said he was finding it difficult to spend time outside after 7 p.m. at his Jarales home even "sprayed down."

"There is a lot of farmland down there. The unincorporated area is being hit heavy," he said. "I can remember 10 or 15 years ago, a truck sprayed down there." Murmurs of "yes" and other sounds of agreement arose from the audience.

Medina said he understood that there were budgetary concerns, but felt finding the money for the vector control was viable. Otero-Kirkham asked if the commissioner was saying that controlling mosquitoes was "simply too big for people to handle by themselves." Medina answered that yes, the problem was just too big.

Acknowledging that they were not going to get rid of mosquitoes, Commissioner Don Holliday said that it seemed like the vector control kept them away for a while.

"It seems like they vary from place to place in the county," he said. "If we are talking about spraying something like four months out of the year, I would like to see the county look into getting its own equipment to do that."

Commissioner Ron Gentry, noting that mosquitoes were a fact of life, said the problem might be too big for the county to handle on its own. "There is a lot of property around here — owned by game and fish, the conservancy district, in the bosque — where there is no vector control," he said. "The county can't go onto those properties and treat their standing water."

Calling the county the "smallest player" in the group of landowners, Gentry said he would like to see the county pursue a cooperative plan for vector control with all the agencies that own property.

"Are we just throwing money away and placating the problem?" he asked. "I think we need to look at the larger picture and, if it can be controlled at this level, put together a consortium with the bigger players."

Big player or small, county resident Jeff Kunzman said that, after living on a ditch bank for 28 years, he can tell the difference between when the county has sprayed and now that it isn't.

"I know when you don't spray, I can't go outside. When you do spray, I can," he said. "Right now I have to go outside to work at 2 o'clock in the afternoon to get anything done."

Kunzman called the decision not to spray in a rural county such as Valencia absurd. "There are ditches and farmland," he said. "Everyone says we're in a recession. Well, the mosquitoes did not get the memo."

Kunzman presented the commissioners with a petition signed by 550 people asking the county to appropriate funds to alleviate mosquito breeding in Valencia County.

"It's June, and West Nile season is starting," he said. "Our kids can't go outside and play. I'm asking that you rethink this decision."

Dr. Sandoval, the owner and operator of the business the county previously contracted with for vector control, said on the issue of accountability he has faxed monthly reports to the county during the time he has provided service.

"The vector control programs were started by the State Department of Health. In 1993, the trucks and foggers for the program were given to the counties to handle," he said. "While mosquitoes are forever, the viruses they carry are new."

Sandoval said health officials are currently tracking two new viruses, which are expected to hit the United States within 36 months and enter New Mexico a year after.

"We tracked West Nile before it was here. The death rates in New Mexico are very low. In New York City, they had 500 deaths; they had no program," he said. "Will this stop all deaths and sickness? No. Our job is to lower the mosquito population in order to lower the virus load."

The abatement of mosquitoes is done primarily in the water by eliminating the larva, Sandoval said. "It's about 75 percent in the water and 25 percent in the air," he said.

Doing vector control is what Sandoval calls a double-edged sword. "If we do a good job and there are fewer mosquitoes, you think the program isn't needed," he said. "If there are more mosquitoes than people like, the thought is the program isn't effective."

He again emphasized that eliminating every mosquito was not the goal of vector control. "It is to keep the virus load down. This county is considered a hot county," Sandoval said. "The virus load usually peaks in mid-August and then drops off around the first frost."

Commissioner Gentry again visited the idea of the big picture and the possibility of including other landowners in vector control efforts. "We are talking about $2,000 a month for the whole county," he said. "And not to disparage your abilities or expertise, but what are we really getting? How effective is that program?"

Sandoval said he agreed that it would be more effective with all the groups involved, but that hasn't worked out in the past. "Everyone else kind of backs out, and that's how it ends up with the municipalities and the counties taking care of it on their own," he said.

If the county was going to make the effort to find the money needed to pay the remaining five months of the contract, robbing Peter to pay Paul, as Gentry put it, the commissioner wanted some assurances from Sandoval that the program was working.

"I need to be able to tell my constituents what this program is doing," he said. Sandoval said he could get Gentry the information about the service provided to his district in the past.

In addition to Kunzmann and his petition, five other Valencia County residents spoke to the commissioners and asked that they reinstate the vector control, calling it a matter of public health and safety.

Before the commission voted, Gentry said he would like to identify the funding source for the five months left of the contract. "Where are we going to get the money?" he asked. "Maybe we should take $2,000 out of each department's travel budget?"

The commission did not specify where the money would come from for the vector control, but Rael did note that the approval of the program was all subject to finding the funds.

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