Woman Sues Over Pesticide Spraying in Santa Fe

A Santa Fe County woman who is sensitive to chemicals has sued a lawn-care company, her neighborhood association and eight neighbors, alleging she became ill after trees were sprayed in the area to kill bark beetles.

Carolyn Beste said in the lawsuit filed in state court last week she and her husband Michael bought their property partly because of covenants banning "noxious or offensive activity" in the subdivision.

The complaint, which said the woman has been extremely sensitive to environmental pathogens since childhood, seeks to ban any spraying of pesticides harmful to humans in the subdivision. It also seeks unspecified damages.

The lawsuit said landowners association board members announced Sept. 16 they would spray "'specimen trees' with an insecticide that is nontoxic to birds and other wildlife" because bark beetles were killing so many pinons.

Evergreen Lawn Care System of Rio Rancho on Oct. 9 began spraying carbaryl, "a neurotoxic pesticide which poses a serious health risk to humans," while winds were 15 mph and without warning the Bestes, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges the pesticide, blown to the couple's home, assaulted Carolyn Beste's immune system, "causing her to experience severe tremors, numbness and difficulty in breathing." It alleged she would have died had her husband not quickly given her an injection.

Carolyn Beste had been in intense treatment and had recovered most of her health by last August. But the exposure "truncated her short-lived good health, and she has suffered a severe and potentially irreversible setback," the lawsuit alleges.

Her medical bills run about $5,000 a month and she "suffers from severe and extreme emotional distress," the lawsuit alleges. Michael Beste has lost her "good companionship, relationship and marital consortium," it added.

Evergreen's owner, David Patterson, said Monday he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.