Updated: Idaho pesticide rules could be relaxed after crop-duster group complaints
After a group of Parma farmworkers were hospitalized last year from alleged exposure to pesticides sprayed by a crop-duster, advocates demanded change.
Instead, Idaho lawmakers may slash some state rules that regulate aerial pesticide spray after a crop-duster association complained of excessive oversight and regulation.
During a Tuesday rules reauthorization hearing, the Legislature’s House Agricultural Committee unanimously voted to strike several rules that regulate spray from aerial applicators like crop-dusters.
They included Idaho State Department of Agriculture rules barring pilots from flying low over towns, schools, hospitals or “densely populated areas” without written agreements, flying low over occupied structures like homes without prior notification, restrictions on spraying pesticides during certain wind speeds and directions and a ban on spraying pesticides near designated “hazard areas.”
During Tuesday testimony, pilots and aerial application company owners argued the state agriculture rules duplicated federal laws already in place, and that only the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had the right to regulate flight patterns.
“Why would we want an ISDA investigator spending time and money investigating something that the Boise flight standards district office could be investigating on the federal dime?” said George Parker, the owner of CropJet Aviation in Gooding and the former Idaho representative to the National Agricultural Aviation Association.
Christina Stucker-Gassi from the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides worried the removal of the rules could further limit the state agriculture investigators’ ability to enforce consequences for pesticide exposure.
“Wind speeds and directions, and height of aircraft above the field all go into determining whether or not the label was followed in the case of a drift event,” Stucker-Gassi said.
Brian Oakey, the deputy director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, said that the agency is the first regulator on pesticide spray issues. The Boise office of the FAA does not participate in regulating pesticide applicators like crop-dusters, Oakey said, but defers to the state agriculture department.
“They are not doing anything in the state of Idaho because we have these rules in place,” Oakey told the committee.
David Lehman, an Idaho lobbyist hired by the Idaho Agricultural Aviation Association, said a bill that would clear up the remaining “ambiguity” in the pesticide statutes would likely be introduced Thursday or Monday.
Before the vote, committee chairwoman Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, asked Lehman if the association wanted the committee members to repeal the rules now, or wait for the legislation to be introduced. Lehman asked for both, arguing the state rules were implemented decades ago to rein in “cowboy” pilots, before technology and industry standards advanced.
“They require very good pilots to fly (the planes),” Lehman told the committee. “We don’t have the same players in the industry that maybe there were 25 years ago when these rules were considered and adopted.”
Boyle said the pesticide rules could return to the Senate Agriculture Committee for a hearing because of an agreement between the two committees. But Sen. Jim Guthrie, a McCammon Republican and the chair of the senate committee, said they would likely not reconsider the rule because only one body needs to reject a fee rule.
“Of course that could change,” Guthrie wrote in a Wednesday email to the Statesman. “But that is the lay of the land today...”
The Legislature’s Senate Agricultural Committee had previously approved the reauthorization of rules on pesticide use and application during a Jan. 28 meeting. Victor Mason, the state’s administrator of agricultural resources, said more than 1,000 words were trimmed from the rules, but the agency had made few substantive changes during the negotiated rulemaking process.
Complaints stem from pesticide exposure incident
The association’s complaints stem from a pesticide exposure incident in 2019, when a group of farmworkers allege they were sprayed by a crop-duster.
An October investigation by the Idaho Statesman found that several farmworkers were still sick months after the Memorial Day pesticide exposure incident in Parma. Farmworkers working in an Obendorf Hop field claimed a crop-duster sprayed a pesticide on a neighboring Obendorf Farms onion field that caused their illnesses.
State agriculture investigators couldn’t verify the sick farmworkers were exposed to the pesticide from the crop duster, due to mismatched symptoms, a lack of lab testing and a rainstorm. The Valley Air pilot who sprayed the Obendorf Farms field was not fined or suspended because officials also did not find evidence that he violated the EPA’s Worker Protection Standard.
Instead, state investigators sent the Valley Air pilot a regulatory letter informing him he had violated Idaho Code by spraying pesticides in a “faulty, careless or negligent manner.”
The pilot, José Pérez, disputed these claims in a formal response to the regulatory letter, which the Idaho Statesman obtained via a public records request. He also questioned the agriculture department’s right to send the letter, arguing “that only the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the regulatory entity of the NATIONAL AIRSPACE.”
Although neither lawmakers nor the association members mentioned the Memorial Day pesticide exposure incident during their Tuesday testimony, Parker and Lehman said the Idaho Agricultural Aviation Association met with state agriculture officials in October to discuss the rule changes. Agency spokeswoman Chanel Tewalt told the Statesman in a Wednesday email statement that the aviation association did not request to be involved in the rulemaking process after the meeting.
Parker echoed Pérez’s sentiments when he spoke to the Statesman in October, saying the agency had overstepped and industry representatives planned to meet with the department to discuss their displeasure over the way the case was handled.
“Why is the ISDA sending letters of reprimand and crucifying people when there is no evidence of any wrongdoing?” Parker told the Statesman at the time. “It is all unfounded BS that is maligning an entire industry in a state … that is being urbanized at a rapid rate, while we still try to feed the world.”
Oakey cautioned lawmakers Tuesday that they were only hearing testimony from the aerial application industry, and not from other parties who might want to weigh in on pesticide rules.
“I’d left the meeting in October with the folks sitting behind me with the feeling that we were on a pretty good path and on the same page,” Oakey said. “I still think we are, to a certain degree.”
Farmworker, environmental advocates concerned
Christina Stucker-Gassi from the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides said the organization opposed the changes, as the state is currently responsible for ensuring pesticide applicators comply to all federal standards, like from the EPA.
“If this move would limit ISDA’s (ability) to have factual information about aerial applications, there would be no way to ensure proper methods were followed in the event of damage to human health, or neighboring crops for that matter,” Stucker-Gassi said. “Although precision technology has come a long way in the past few decades, experts agree more research on the extent to which pesticide drift harms human and environmental health is warranted.”
Visión 2C, a new Canyon County chapter of Idaho Organization Resource Council that formed in response to the pesticide exposure incident, said they would be watching the progress of the rule changes and the forthcoming bill.
“We want to make sure farmworkers will be protected,” spokeswoman Marielena Vega said.
This story has been updated with comments from state officials and advocacy groups.
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 1:33 PM.
