The city of Novato has joined other Marin cities and local governments in eliminating the use of glyphosate, the key ingredient in the Roundup brand weed killer that puts users at a heightened risk of cancer.

Novato’s move comes on the heels of a jury decision earlier this month that awarded $289.2 million to a former Benicia School District groundskeeper with terminal cancer after using the product. Glyphosate was recently added to the Environmental Health Hazard Assessment’s Proposition 65 list of suspected carcinogens.

“The reality is, it’s going to put a burden on our public works department,” said Novato Mayor Josh Fryday, who announced last week that Novato is now “glyphosate-free.”

Fryday said that by discontinuing the use of the chemical, the city is going to “rely on staff time and volunteers” to manually remove weeds from city-owned parks, streets, sidewalks and medians.

“We’ve got to put our money where our values are,” Fryday said. “It’s important to protect the community — for that it’s worth the burden.”

Across Marin, many jurisdictions had already discontinued the use of the harmful chemical, with some taking several different approaches to how pests, including rodents and weeds, are treated on public lands.

The Marin County Parks Department, for example has not used glyphosate since 2015, and officially banned the chemical last year, said Jim Chayka, integrated pest management coordinator for the county.

The focus on glyphosate on county lands sharpened in 2015 when Marin County Parks erected signs on Ring Mountain informing the public that glyphosate would be used to kill non-native grasses. Those grasses had been strangling a rare native: the Tiburon mariposa lily, which exists only on Ring Mountain.

But after an outcry from residents concerned about potential health impacts, Marin parks officials postponed the application.

After the Ring Mountain issue, the Board of Supervisors created a subcommittee to better understand and evaluate existing county practices.

What emerged were new goals: no glyphosate use within parks, an increase in non-herbicide alternatives and work with the public to reduce herbicide use countywide.

Now the chemical is not used at county parks and other areas, such as medians and golf courses.

“We focus really on manual activity: mulching, handweeding,” Chayka said. “We feel like we are making the right choices and we are gently trying to lead the county in that same direction.”

Last year, the county put in 43,033 work hours toward manual weed abatement and pest management, including 9,000 volunteer hours.

The Marin Municipal Water District has not been using herbicides, including glyphosate, for several years. District staff had proposed using diluted glyphosate to help it control invasive patches of broom that have taken root across Mount Tamalpais. But public protests, including the ouster of an incumbent MMWD board member in a campaign that centered on the issue, preceded MMWD directors’ vote to abandon that plan.

The city of San Rafael stopped using the chemical this spring, said Bill Guerin, director of public works for the city. The city does use another herbicide called Lifeline, he said.

“But in response to the community concerns, we are trying to use a lot of different tactics aside from chemicals, such as handweeding, weeders, and sometimes using a torch to burn down the weeds,” he said.

It’s been at least two years since glyphosate was used in Larkspur — and now, the city doesn’t use any chemicals for weed abatement at all, said Julian Skinner, the city’s public works director.

Glyphosate hasn’t been used in Mill Valley since 2016. The city does use a fungicide on its golf course, but not at public parks or fields, said Andrew Poster, the city’s director of public works.

“We’re really basically following (the county’s) guidelines on this, and that’s what our (integrated pest management) is based on,” Poster said.

In Novato, city staffers are re-evaluating traditional landscaping in favor of low-water and low-maintenance styles. In open spaces, goats are sometimes employed to graze on weeds and wild grasses, which helps with creating defensible space in the wildland urban interface, the city announced.

Fryday encourages residents to volunteer with the Novato Streetscape Committee and to contact the city’s public works department at pw@novato.org or at 415-899-8280.

“It’s about protecting the environment and protecting the community,” Fryday said. “Making sure that we can continue down this sustainable path.”