The Puerto Rican city of San Juan is suing the federal government to stop aerial spraying to combat the Zika virus.
San Juan’s government said in a lawsuit filed last week in Puerto Rico’s federal court that the plan to spray would pose “a significant risk” to wildlife and fish in the area. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced earlier this week that it would start aerial spraying in the U.S. territory to kill mosquitoes spreading the Zika virus.
The lawsuit comes as Republicans have called for the Obama administration to relax Clean Water Act regulations to enable spraying in the U.S, but the Obama administration has not agreed.
Almost 3,800 cases of Zika have been found in Puerto Rico as of July 20, according to CDC. All of them were acquired via mosquito bites.
A San Juan city official met with the CDC in June, when the agency said that it would spray Puerto Rico with the chemical pesticide Naled, the lawsuit said.
The official objected to the use of the pesticide, but the agency responded it would carry out the spraying “with or without the consent and cooperation of local authorities,” the lawsuit noted.
San Juan doesn’t want to use Naled because of multiple studies that say exposure can lead to breathing complications, skin irritation, nausea, headaches, damage to the nervous system and other complications.
The lawsuit said that last week CDC transferred a significant amount of Naled to the U.S. territory and there was “an imminent possibility” of aerial spraying.
Since the lawsuit was filed, the governor of Puerto Rico said the government will not allow the CDC to spray Naled.
“We regret that the shipment of Naled arrived in Puerto Rico without appropriate levels of awareness,” the CDC said about the governor’s decision. “Under no circumstances would CDC undertake application of Naled unless the government of Puerto Rico decided to do so, authorized it, and requested CDC to do so.”
The agency did not comment on the lawsuit.
San Juan said the CDC failed to provide a required environmental impact statement on how the spraying would affect local wildlife and the environment. It called for the court to stop the CDC from doing the spraying.
Congress left town for the summer two weeks ago without approving $1.1 billion in funding to fight Zika. The package stalled after Democrats objected to several riders and criticized Republican efforts to take money from Obamacare instead of allocating all of it as new funding.
Republicans have pressed the Obama administration to relax rules under the Clean Water Act that requires anyone who sprays pesticides that may get into a water supply to get a permit.
Republicans say the requirement adds red tape for those trying to fight Zika, while Democrats believe the Republicans are using the virus to roll back environmental regulations.
The GOP-controlled House passed a bill that would lift the requirement in May, but it has stalled in the Senate.
