Albany's Chief City Auditor released a report this week that cites extensive use of toxic pesticides that were supposedly phased out on city property beginning in 1998.

Leif Engstrom is Albany's Chief City Auditor, an independently elected position.While the investigation reported no violation of state law, enforcement of the city law by the Task Force on Water Resources appears to have failed, at least in part because the Task Force has not met since the law went into effect, according to the Times-Union. 

The report states that category one, two and three pesticides - as classified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency - have been used on city-owned parks, lakes and ponds, buildings, and most significantly at the Capitol Hills golf course.  A provision in the law, requiring that the usage of less toxic category two and three pesticides on city land be reported to city lawmakers, also seems to have been largely ignored.

The report was presented at a meeting of a special Common Council committee, formed to determine the causes of the law's implementation failures and make suggestions for changes going forward.  Possible suggestions to lawmakers range from strengthening the law to rescinding it altogether.