A federal judge ruled Thursday that 38 pesticides cannot be used within specific distances of rivers and creeks used by salmon runs that are endangered or threatened.

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour of Seattle ordered that these pesticides cannot be applied to the ground within 20 yards of such creeks and rivers, and cannot be applied from the air within 100 yards of the streams.

"The court finds that pesticide-application buffer zones are a common, simple and effective strategy to avoid jeopardy to threatened and endangered salmonids," Coughenour wrote in his order.

These buffer zones are to remain until the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Marine Fisheries Service review and establish permanent restrictions on pesticide uses near streams containing salmon runs listed by the federal government as threatened or endangered.

Consequently, the ruling affects rivers and creeks branching off the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon -- including the Mid-Columbia.

Coughenour also ordered that home and garden pesticides containing at least one of seven chemical ingredients be labeled as harmful to salmon if sold in city areas of more than 50,000 people in these affected regions. Consequently, such labels will soon be required for some home and garden pesticides sold in the Tri-City area, including Burbank and Finley.

Those seven ingredients are 2,4-D, carbaryl, diazinon, diuron, malathion, triclopyr BEE and trifluralin.

Coughenour's order is not a surprise because he earlier indicated he would rule that way, said Patti Goldman, a Seattle-based attorney for Earthjustice.

Earthjustice represents the Washington Toxics Coalition, the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources in a lawsuit filed against the EPA to seek the restrictions noted in Thursday's order.

The plaintiffs originally sought buffer zones for 54 pesticides, with Coughenour agreeing to establish buffer zones for 38.

Several agricultural and chemical companies and organizations intervened in the litigation, joining EPA as defendants.

"The lawsuit was never about harm to the salmon. It was about paperwork. It was about the failure of two agencies (EPA and NMFS) to talk to each other, and farmers are going to pay for it," said Heather Hansen, executive director of Washington Friends of Farms and Forests, based in Olympia.

She later added, "Some people will likely be put out of business because of (the ruling)."

Hansen pointed to small tree fruit farms in the Wenatchee area and in Skagit County as potential ventures that could go out of business.

She also contended that EPA can already restrict specific pesticides if they are proved to be harmful to salmon. The appropriate federal officials could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

Hansen said the defendants are considering appealing the ruling but no decision has been made.