SEATTLE – NOAA wants the Environmental Protection Agency to set up buffer zones for salmon after identifying three chemicals in pesticides that could hurt West Coast salmon populations.

The chemicals are diazonin, malathion, and chlorpyrifos. NOAA says they are likely to jeopardize 27 populations of salmon on the West Coast that are listed as either endangered or threatened.

Among the NOAA suggestions:

-- Create buffer zones of 1,000 feet for aerial application and 500 feet for ground application between where the pesticides are applied and salmon streams.

-- Set strips of a minimum of 20 feet of grasses, bushes or other vegetation on agricultural sites adjacent to surface waters designed to absorb runoff from pesticide-treated fields.

-- Restrict applying pesticides in windy conditions that could carry them into nearby streams.

-- Prohibit applying pesticides when a storm is predicted that could cause run off into nearby streams.

NOAA scientists found the chemicals not only can be lethal to salmon at certain concentrations, but can also hurt salmon growth by impairing their ability to smell their prey and by reducing the amount of small fish and insects for food.

NOAA says the chemicals have also been found to slow the swimming of salmon or make their swimming erratic, impairing their ability to return to their natal streams to spawn and to avoid predators.

The EPA will consider NOAA’s opinion as it decides how pesticides containing diazonin, malathion, and chlorpyrifos can be used.