‘Why is the park board trying to kill me?’

I like to play nine holes of golf in the morning during the summer, the back nine at Hiawatha. Last week I was playing and the groundskeepers were spraying the greens right in front and behind me. I got up to the clubhouse and found they were using Echo 75 WSP, a fungicide to keep down mold. I got to my office and Googled Echo 75 and found it was a dangerous carcinogen. Its acute hazard warning label is 1Danger, which means it is highly toxic and a dangerous poison.

The golf course warns away children and small animals, but what about the rest of us? What are we? Chopped liver?

This is the kind of poison that lasts for a long time. It is sprayed on the grass, then, when the grass is cut, it goes into the air and golfers breathe it. When it rains it runs off into Minnehaha Creek and Lake Hiawatha. It will poison the fish and, in turn, poison the blue herons, snowy egrets and other birds that come to feed at the lake. Children who swim in Lake Hiawatha will bathe in poison. It has a cumulative effect. Once it gets in your body, it doesn't go away but eventually causes liver damage and pancreatic cancer.

If they use this poison, the golf course should close for at least 48 hours to let some of it run off, and they should close the beach at Lake Hiawatha permanently.
“Silent Spring” and “Living Downstream” should be required reading for anyone connected with the park system and concerned about the public welfare. Will it take a class action lawsuit to get their attention?