Cities broke their own vows on glyphosate bans, OC residents find

Orange County cities including San Juan Capistrano and Irvine made public pledges to restrict or ban glyphosate-based herbicides — then quietly continued spraying them, according to Voice of OC.

The broken pledges, exposed after residents confronted contractors and demanded public records, reveal a persistent gap between civic commitments on pesticide safety and the reality of land management across one of California's most populous counties.

San Juan Capistrano resident Carolyn McCuan said she chose her neighborhood in fall 2024 based on city assurances that no chemical herbicides would be used. Within two months, she discovered RoundUp being applied throughout the area. "The biggest thing for us was we moved here because we thought it was safe and found out they used RoundUp all over the place," McCuan told Voice of OC. "It makes me really upset."

McCuan said the discovery carried a deeply personal sting. Prior exposure to glyphosate had taken a lasting physical toll: "I used to run marathons. I don't feel like how I did five years ago when I was able to walk out the door and go run 5-7 miles. My energy has never gone back to what it was, but it's much better than when I was bedridden."

San Juan Capistrano City Manager Benjamin Siegel acknowledged the lapse in a written statement, saying "the program has not been applied consistently at City-maintained areas, with the exception of City trails," and that tracking records were found to be insufficient, according to Voice of OC. Irvine presents a parallel failure: the city enacted an ordinance in 2016 making glyphosate a last resort, then in 2024 quietly rolled it back to allow the Irvine Ranch Conservancy to use herbicides against invasive species such as artichoke thistle in open spaces, Voice of OC reported.

Environmental activist and former Irvine resident Kim Konte challenged the value of policies that go unenforced. "What is the point of a policy if it's never followed? Who's overseeing implementation?" she told Voice of OC. "It's a direct threat to public health. Period." The Centers for Disease Control notes glyphosate can cause nausea, vomiting, and respiratory effects including asthma. Multiple workers who sprayed glyphosate have settled lawsuits after developing lymphoma, according to Voice of OC.

Bruce Blumberg, a professor of developmental and cell biology at UC Irvine, said the science on long-term glyphosate risk remains incomplete — partly because research funding has never materialized. "We don't really know the full spectrum of negative consequences, it takes a lot of money and effort to study that. There's no one providing that money," he told Voice of OC. "The long term consequences are by and large not completely known, but they're certainly not beneficial." Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley pledged in March 2026 to halt herbicide spraying in San Juan and Trabuco Creek flood channels for at least one year; a state probe was also recently launched in South Orange County after county contractors were confronted spraying herbicides in San Diego Creek.

Creek Team leader Brent Linas said cities and the county have responded to resident pressure in starkly different ways. "I think it's a really interesting lesson in civics in that the cities are like, 'We screwed up, this is a violation of what we want to do and hey we're going to work with you to figure this out,'" he told Voice of OC. The county's posture was the opposite, Linas said: "The county is like 'Stay out of my business, you don't know what you're talking about and you're threatening people's safety. We're going to do what we want cause you are irrelevant to us.'" Blumberg offered a blunt assessment: "They're doing just what they used to do. There really is no recourse other than the public voting those people out of office the next time they have a chance."

Costa Mesa has drawn recognition as a counterexample, maintaining a herbicide restriction policy and responding quickly to reported violations, Voice of OC noted. Creek Team and allied resident groups say they plan to keep confronting contractors in the field and pressing officials for enforceable herbicide policies across Orange County.