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Governor's disputed pesticide panelist resigns
Labor advocates questioned pick of Dow-linked scientist
By ROBERT MCCLURE
Gov. Chris Gregoire's controversial appointment of a scientist
affiliated with Dow Chemical to a state panel that tracks pesticide
exposures ended Thursday with the researcher resigning before his first
meeting.
The appointment riled farmworker advocates, who accused the governor of
bowing to industry by kicking off an environmentalist-leaning scientist
who previously held the position. Gregoire's office said she stands by
her action and won't be tapping the green-leaning toxicologist for
another term on the Pesticide Incident Reporting and Tracking Review
Panel.
The resigning scientist, Charles Timchalk, who previously worked for Dow
for 10 years and has continued to do research for the company, said his
resignation was prompted by rancor over his appointment and a lack of
clear communication from the Gregoire administration as the controversy
erupted.
"A lot's been going on over the last few weeks and ... from a personal
perspective, I'd rather not be engaged with it at this time," said
Timchalk, a toxicologist. "It's a little disappointing that people
didn't take the time to read what I've written in peer-reviewed
(science) journals."
Since he left Dow in 1997, Timchalk has worked for the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratories in Richland, a privately run arm of the U.S.
Department of Energy. Most of his research money there has come from
government agencies, Timchalk said, although he continued to collaborate
with Dow researchers.
"We're certainly disappointed to learn Dr. Timchalk has resigned from
the board, and continue to believe he was the right person for the job,"
said Pearse Edwards, a Gregoire spokesman.
Edwards repeated the governor's rationale that she was merely seeking
new blood, and so did not reappoint Seattle toxicologist Steve Gilbert,
a board member of the anti-pesticide Washington Toxics Coalition, for a
third term on the state panel.
"We're going to look beyond Dr. Gilbert and reopen the process, and look
forward to picking from a wide range of candidates," Edwards said.
Records of e-mails from Gregoire's office uncovered by the Farm Worker
Pesticide Project through the Washington Public Records Law show that
Timchalk's appointment was pushed by Jim Jesernig, a former state
agriculture department director who headed Gregoire's early transition
team when she prepared to take office in late 2004.
Jesernig's clients include CropLife America, a trade group for the
pesticide industry, as well as others in agriculture.
A pro-pesticide agricultural trade group called Washington Friends of
Farms and Forests also backed Timchalk, as did the Washington Potato
Commission.
The Friends group is a leading critic of Gilbert, the outgoing panel
member affiliated with the Washington Toxics Coalition.
"Their goal, their reason for being, is to eliminate pesticide use.
Well, that's not the goal of the (state) panel," said Heather Hansen,
the agricultural group's executive director. "The goal of the (state)
panel is to be regulate pesticides and coordinate state agencies."
She called Gilbert's work on behalf of the anti-pesticide group "a huge
conflict of interest."
Gilbert -- who was backed by Democratic House Speaker Frank Chopp -- is
not paid for his work at the Toxics Coalition. He said he would have
resigned that post if Gregoire asked.
Carol Dansereau, director of the Farm Worker Pesticide Project, said
Timchalk's appointment created a conflict of interest because he is
affiliated with Dow. The firm's representatives have attended meetings
of the state panel and expressed concern about a state study to examine
how pesticides drifting off farm fields affect people -- a project the
state panel, led by Gilbert, endorsed. Among the pesticides being
examined is a controversial one produced by Dow, chlorpyrifos.
Gregoire's lieutenants say she did not reappoint Gilbert because of a
"rule of thumb" of not reappointing members of state advisory panels
after two terms.
However, Dansereau, of the farmworker group, pointed to examples of
Gregoire reappointing members of state boards for third and even fourth
terms.
The Seattle P-I has requested that the governor's office provide records
on the proportion of appointments Gregoire has made in which a board
member has been selected for more than two terms.
Alice Larson was the public's representative on the pesticide panel for
four terms and headed a subcommittee that recommended Gilbert be
reappointed. After firing off a letter to Gregoire protesting Timchalk's
appointment, she said in an interview that subcommittee members were
uniformly unimpressed by Timchalk, who did the interview by telephone
rather than in person.
The governor's request to the screening panel and the governor's Web
site both said members were eligible for up to four terms, as allowed
under the law that created the pesticide panel.
"Claiming there's a two-term limit is ridiculous," Larson said, adding
that after the interviews, the panel found recommending Gilbert over
Timchalk "a no-brainer."
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