| HOUMA Federally ordered grounding of crop-dusting aircraft ended
shortly after midnight today, during a week in which spreading of
chemicals that speed ripening of local sugar cane crops is considered
crucial by some growers.
Christopher White, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman for the
agencys southern region, said the grounding was ordered as a matter of
national security.
Ranking FAA officials in Washington have said the grounding resulted
from a request from law enforcement.
The FBI issued an advisory to crop dusters through a national fliers
organization that said they should be vigilant to any suspicious
activity relative to the use, training in or acquisition of dangerous
chemicals or airborne application of same, including threats, unusual
purchases, suspicious behavior by employees or customers, and unusual
contacts with the public, the statement, issued through the National
Agricultural Aviation Association, reads.
The federal order affects about 3,500 aircraft nationally.
Four of those are operated in the Lafourche-Terrebonne area by aviator
Don Hohensee, who would have been spreading a ripening agent on sugarcane
in local fields if not for the order.
Its put us behind, said Hohensee. Weve been staying
behind the past several weeks due to all this in New York. We were told
national security measures need to be taken. There will be a little drop
in the sugar yield for a certain period of time.
The enhancement agent, called Polado, makes the cane ripen more quickly
than it would otherwise, making it readier for market sooner and thus
increasing production. Without the Polado, growers and other sugar experts
said, the yield can easily fall. There is added risk for growers that
adverse weather conditions later in the season can destroy areas of cane
that might have been harvested with the Polados help.
It is extremely important, said Eric Pitre, research technician
at the U.S. Department of Agriculture sugar laboratory in Houma, when
asked about Polado use. It gives early sugar to the crop which would
not be ripening normally at this time and is a benefit to growers. If the
no-fly order stays in effect the overall sugar recovered potentially could
be lower.
Terrebonne Parish grower Daniel Naquin said Polado application is
crucial as the sugar industry enters harvest time. With the chemical,
which makes the cane ripen more quickly, mills can yield 220 to 240 pounds
of product per ton. Without it the yield can be 170 pounds of sugar per
ton or lower. Naquin farms about 1,100 of Terrebonne Parishs 3,300
acres of cane.
Theyve got to do what theyve got to do but it messes us up,
Naquin said. I know weve got peoples lives affected way worse
than ours, though. If thats all we have to do in order to do our part
of this were happy to do it.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, during an interview on a CBS
Network news show Sunday morning, addressed a question about crop dustings
potential for dispersing chemical or biological agents by terrorists.
We cant know that for certain. We can suspect it, Rumsfeld
said, according to an official Department of Defense transcript. (Countries)
that have sponsored terrorism for decades are countries that have very
active chemical and biological warfare programs. And we know that they are
in close contact with terrorist networks around the world. So, reasonable
people have to say to themselves that when you find that kind of
information, it ought to cause us to recognize that those are dangers that
we need to worry about. |