To the editor:

Year after year, each spring time, the garden vegetables that I grow in my backyard gets affected by the weed spray drift. I do not know which neighbors are using those, but clearly it is a weed killer spray drift damage. I have taken photos of the damaged leaves on my tomato plant, oak tree and blackberry plant. I live in a densely populated neighborhood.

Does Kansas have any laws regarding lawn herbicide applications in densely populated residential areas where there is no buffer zone? There need to be some laws to let the nearby homeowners know when these spray applications are done in the neighborhood. Harm to my vegetables is less of my concern than the adverse health effects from breathing the leftover vapors and also through soil or grass contact that one could get when working in the yard. The air that we breathe is for everyone to share. The use of weed spray is not a private business anymore.

When the home lawn maintenance is entrusted to a professional lawn maintenance business, the homeowner may not know what they apply on the lawn. The spray applicators are not usually seen as they may be applying it during the workday when most people are not at home. But what about that evening, when the effect is still lingering in the soil and the air? The city need to have a website where citizens should be able to find when weed sprays are applied in close proximity to where they live.