NO SPRAY COALITION, INC., NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST THE MISUSE OF PESTICIDES, INC., DISABLED IN ACTION, INC., SAVE ORGANIC STANDARDS NEW YORK BY ITS PRESIDENT HOWARD BRANDSTEIN, VALERIE SHEPPARD, MITCHEL COHEN, ROBERT LEDERMAN AND EVA YAA ASANTEWAA,
Plaintiffs,
v.
THE CITY OF NEW YORK, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, as MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, NEAL COHEN, COMMISSIONER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, THE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, AND RICHARD SHEIRER, COMMISSIONER OF THE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK,
Defendants.
CIVIL ACTION
No. 00 Civ. 5395 (AGS)
Reply Affidavit of Karl S. Coplan
State of New York )
ss.:
County of Westchester )
Karl S. Coplan, being first duly sworn, deposes and says:
1. I am an attorney admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I am Co-director and Supervising Attorney at the Pace Environmental Clinic, Inc., attorneys for the Plaintiffs in this action. I submit this reply affidavit in support of Plaintiffs’ application for a preliminary injunction and in opposition to defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint or for summary judgment. The purpose of this affidavit is to identify certain documentary evidence for the Court . In order to avoid confusion, the exhibits attached to this affidavit are lettered sequentially commencing with the first letter following the exhibit tabs in the Plaintiffs’ original papers in support of its application for a preliminary injunction. Accordingly, the first exhibit attached hereto will be lettered “O.” Exhibits attached hereto will be cited as “Pl. Rep. Ex. __”
Attached hereto as Plaintiffs’ Exhibit O is a print of digital screen captures taken from the videotape taken by Roy Doremus on August 4, 2000, together with Mr. Doremus’s affidavit verifying the accuracy of the videotape. I personally prepared these prints by taking a straight screen capture from the videotape to a laptop computer, and did not enhance or alter the digitized image in any way. Although the picture quality is necessarily poor given the low lighting, the picture at the top depicts an unidentified person running from the pesticide fog from the spray truck into the line of cars parked on the right hand side of the street. The picture at the bottom depicts several unidentified individuals, including children, standing on a street corner under the cloud of pesticide fog that was just sprayed. Both shots are more clear in the original videotape.
Attached hereto as Plaintiffs’ Exhibit P is a print of a screen capture from a videotape of television news footage depicting helicopter spraying of pesticides over waters.
Attached hereto as Plaintiffs’ Exhibit Q hereto is a true copy of the Materials Safety Data sheet (MSDS) for the pesticide Fyfanon ULV, obtained from an internet database.
Attached hereto as Plaintiffs’ Exhibit R hereto is a true copy of the amicus brief filed by the United States in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, urging reversal of the decision in Headwaters, Inc. v. Talent Irrigation District, 1999 U.S. Dist Lexis 21569 (No. 98-6004(AA) D. Or. Feb. 1, 1999), as provided to me by counsel for plaintiffs in that case.
Attached hereto as Plaintiffs Exhibit S are the declarations of Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Terri Gumula Drach, Kimberly Romano, Deborah Schwartz detailing their adverse health reactions to insecticide spraying activities conducted by New York City.
Attached hereto as Plaintiffs Exhibit T is a copy of a petition signed by 49 health professionals in opposition to the spraying of pesticides as a response to West Nile Virus.
______________________________
Karl S. Coplan
Sworn before me
this 24th day of August, 2000.
_________________________
Notary Public