JACUMBA RESIDENTS CALL FOR SHUT-DOWN OF ORGANIC FARM OVER EYE GNAT INFESTATION; PLAN PROTEST MARCH ON SEPT. 17

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September 11, 2011 (Jacumba) -- Residents of Jacumba are planning a protest march at the entrance of Bornt & Sons Organic Farm on Saturday, September 17th at 10 a.m.

 

Despite a Grand Jury report, documentation of health harm to residents, and a realtor’s statement that the gnats are negatively impacting property values and sales, residents in this town of 500 people contend that Alan Bornt has not adequately adjusted his farming practices to resolve the pesky problem.

 

“We have been dealing with this issue for over six years,” confirms Bill Pape, community activist and founder of the group Jacumba Against Gnats (JAG). “It took us years just to get the County to do a study to officially recognize what we knew all along, that the gnats were being caused by Bornt’s 400-acre lettuce and spinach farm at the edge of town. It took us another year and a Grand Jury Investigation to conclude that existing County ordinances and State law relating pest control and abatement of public nuisances provide sufficient authority for local officials to intervene. It has now been another two years of letters, meetings and broken promises to recognize that the issue will not be settled in spite of Supervisor Diane Jacob’s assistance. We are fed up and want Bornt or the County to take action now. ”

 

In 2010, the San Diego Grand Jury found that the eye gnats should be declared a priority in the County’s program to eradicate pests. The Grand Jury also stated that the gnats serve as a vector for diseases including pink eye and summer mastitis, causing swelling and burning of the protecting membrane lining the eyelids and discharge from the eyes.

 

Residents of Jacumba have been complaining for years about the negative effect that eye gnats have on their quality of life and health. The eye gnat infestation has a severe impact on adults who can no longer work in their gardens and on children both at home and at school during physical fitness and lunch periods.
 

“The eye-gnat situation at Jacumba Elementary is horrific,” states Steve Van Zant, superintendent of the Mountain Empire School District. “To combat this situation, the district has installed door fans on each classroom door, removed carpet from the after school room and replaced it with a tile floor so that our students could eat lunch without constantly swatting away or inadvertently swallowing gnats. We have done this without any apologies from Bornt Farms or any compensation to help defray costs associated with a situation that was clearly caused by the farming activity adjacent to the town of Jacumba.”
 

Chelsea Russell, a teacher at Jacumba School, says for the past seven years, her students have suffered. “The gnats are flying in their eyes in the classroom. How are they expected to learn? They eat their lunch while their faces become covered in gnats…I ask myself, do I teach in a third world country?”
 

Eye Gnats are a proven health hazard. At a Jacumba Community Services Board Meeting held last year, Judy Shaplin, with Mountain Health Clinic reported that the clinic had looked at data as far back as the year 2005 and the data clearly showed a 38-45% increase in eye problems in the Jacumba compared to neighboring Alpine and Campo.
 

An independent expert from the University of California Cooperative Extension, San Diego, found in a 2008 study that the farm can generate up to fifty-nine million eye gnats in just a six day period, JAG reports. The insects swarm when the temperature and wind conditions are just right. Although abatement efforts have had limited success in 2010 with 98% of the gnats reportedly eliminated, residents say numbers are again rising in 2011. Even 2% of the original numbers leaves Jacumba residents facing 34 million gnats.
 

“Two weeks ago, we were attending a Sponsor group meeting at the Jacumba library,” complained Howard Cook, who recently relocated to Jacumba. “The air conditioner was broken so we had to open the doors and windows. The eye gnats were so bad that all of us were furiously swatting at our eyes in unison. Cameron Durkel, the SDGE representative who was there was swatting with the rest of us and was heard to blurt out, ‘this is awful’. We said in unison that he hadn’t a clue.”
 

The Bornt eye gnat infestation also makes it difficult to develop and sustain much-needed tourism to Jacumba and it hurts property values.
 

“I am afraid to bring prospective buyers to Jacumba during summer months,” adds Cheryl Furr, owner of Real Innovate Realty. “One bad experience with gnats flying up their nose or infesting their eyes, and interest in the Jacumba area vaporizes.” Furr recounts an incident of a family that abandoned plans to buy a home in Jacumba after an infant in a car seat was attacked by the swarming gnats.

 

Furr, who also owns rental property in Jacumba was doubly impacted when she lost a recent court case against a tenant who broke a lease. Her tenant, among other things, successfully argued to the court that she “had to move” as the eye gnats were causing her to get eye infections.
 

Eye gnats are very common in warm, dry areas. They grow in light, well drained sandy soils that are freshly plowed and contain abundant organic matter. Conditions at Bornt’s farms are ideal and because the farm is organic, Bornt is limited to the types of pesticides he can use.
 

According to the Grand Jury report, methods that have been used in other areas to control eye gnats include traps and low barriers surrounding fields.
 

“We understand and respect the issues,” Pape affirms. “However, Bornt has seemed resistant all along to the recommended solutions that the experts have put forth. While he reluctantly signed a ‘contract’ laying out the corrective steps he agreed to take, he has consistently skirted the spirit of the contract in his actions. For example, the Contract states that he will divide the farm into Blocks and leave each block dry for a period of 6 weeks. The Vector Contol Eye Gnat Web page posted the map Bornt supplied showing where the blocks are. Mr Bornt has ‘interpreted’ the Contract to mean he can split blocks up into sections and water some of those well outside the guidelines-clearly not the intent of the Agreement. The results are that the gnat infestation is once again growing.”
 

One of the issues that Jacumba is struggling with is that the County measures phoned -in and emailed complaints when determining the “seriousness” of an issue. The Jacumba community consists of many low income residents that either do not have a phone (much less internet access) or, if they do, they pay a fee per call. This makes it far less likely for residents to lodge a complaint. Some community activists have made up cards with the complaint hot line number and are distributing the cards. Children and pets can’t call, and tourists just don’t return, JAG points out.

 

"There are so many POSITIVES about Jacumba right now as our joint Revitalization efforts with Boulevard are bearing fruit,"  Danielle Cook, PR manager of the Boulevard-Jacumba Revitazliation Comittee, told ECM.  "The only "fly in the ointment" (pardon the pun) is the never ending issue with eye gnats that hurts tourism, lowers property values plus decreases the quality of life in Jacumba in so many ways. It is bad enough that our backcountry slice of Paradise has been targeted by the twin blights of wind and electrical power projects, but to also have to deal with this CONTROLLABLE problem,is just unconscionable! Our Children deserve better and Jacumba cannot be successfully revitalized while this scourge continues."

 

Cook said there are proven ways to eradicate gnats that Bornt "appears unable or unwilling to do. He certainly has not lived up to the spirit of the Contract that he signed where he committed to taking certain steps to make this happen. Also, he does have the choice of planting conventionally produced vegetables using the type of farming and pesticide controls that prevent gnats from forming."

 

When asked to sum up what Jacumba residents wanted in one sentence, Bill Pape said, “It is easy; we either want Bornt to voluntarily cease operations, or the County of San Diego to take the steps through the existing County regulatory powers to shut him down.”
 

ECM has attempted to contact Bornt & Sons, owners of the farm, for comment however there was no answer over the weekend at the company’s phone number. ECM would like to speak with the owners, who may contact our office at editor@eastcountymagazine.org or (619)698-7617.
 


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Comments

Bornt & Sons farming practices

I do not know this farm's approach to fertility or their farming practices, but it sounds like they may have a severe soil fertility problem. This soil fertility imbalance could cause the high population of gnats. Please help this farm get consultation, I suggest Kinsey Agriculture Service, Inc. He helps farms all over the world and has for forty years or more.

Best Wishes to your solutions!