The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is taking public comment on whether to initiate rulemaking on pesticide use around water bodies.

The action is in response to a petition from Northwest Environmental Advocates seeking pesticide buffers of up to 1,000 feet around salmon-bearing waters.

The petition also requests that DEQ revise the state's pesticide general permit and petition the state boards of agriculture and forestry to take action on the issue.

Comments can be emailed until 6 p.m. Sept. 18 to waterqualitystandards@deq.state.or.us .

The Environmental Quality Commission will decide whether to grant the petition at its Oct. 25-26 meeting in Bend.

--Mitch Lies