S-1934

AN ACT Relating to providing urban property owners the option of notifying persons of a pesticide application; amending RCW 17.21.020; and adding a new section to chapter 17.21 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 17.21.020 and 1989 c 380 s 33 are each amended to read as follows:

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Agricultural commodity" means any plant or part of a plant, or animal, or animal product, produced by a person (including farmers, ranchers, vineyardists, plant propagators, Christmas tree growers, aquaculturists, floriculturists, orchardists, foresters, or other comparable persons) primarily for sale, consumption, propagation, or other use by people or animals.

(2) "Apparatus" means any type of ground, water, or aerial equipment, device, or contrivance using motorized, mechanical, or pressurized power and used to apply any pesticide on land and anything that may be growing, habitating, or stored on or in such land, but shall not include any pressurized handsized household device used to apply any pesticide, or any equipment, device, or contrivance of which the person who is applying the pesticide is the source of power or energy in making such pesticide application, or any other small equipment, device, or contrivance that is transported in a piece of equipment licensed under this chapter as an apparatus.

(3) "Arthropod" means any invertebrate animal that belongs to the phylum arthropoda, which in addition to insects, includes allied classes whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs; for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and isopod crustaceans.

(4) "Certified applicator" means any individual who is licensed as a commercial pesticide applicator, commercial pesticide operator, public operator, private-commercial applicator, demonstration and research applicator, or certified private applicator, or any other individual who is certified by the director to use or supervise the use of any pesticide which is classified by the EPA as a restricted use pesticide or by the state as restricted to use by certified applicators only.

(5) "Commercial pesticide applicator" means any person who engages in the business of applying pesticides to the land of another.

(6) "Commercial pesticide operator" means any employee of a commercial pesticide applicator who uses or supervises the use of any pesticide and who is required to be licensed under provisions of this chapter.

(7) "Defoliant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to cause the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant with or without causing abscission.

(8) "Department" means the Washington state department of agriculture.

(9) "Desiccant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to artificially accelerate the drying of plant tissues.

(10) "Device" means any instrument or contrivance intended to trap, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate pests, or to destroy, control, repel, or mitigate fungi, nematodes, or such other pests, as may be designated by the director, but not including equipment used for the application of pesticides when sold separately from the pesticides.

(11) "Direct supervision" by certified private applicators shall mean that the designated restricted use pesticide shall be applied for purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on land owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer, by a competent person acting under the instructions and control of a certified private applicator who is available if and when needed, even though such certified private applicator is not physically present at the time and place the pesticide is applied. The certified private applicator shall have direct management responsibility and familiarity of the pesticide, manner of application, pest, and land to which the pesticide is being applied. Direct supervision by all other certified applicators means direct on-the-job supervision. Direct supervision of an aerial apparatus means the pilot of the aircraft must be appropriately certified.

(12) "Director" means the director of the department or a duly authorized representative.

(13) "Engage in business" means any application of pesticides by any person upon lands or crops of another.

(14) "EPA" means the United States environmental protection agency.

(15) "EPA restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide with restricted uses as classified for restricted use by the administrator, EPA.

(16) "FIFRA" means the federal insecticide, fungicide and rodenticide act as amended (61 Stat. 163, 7 U.S.C. Sec. 136 et seq.).

(17) "Fungi" means all nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophytes (all nonchlorophyll-bearing plants of lower order than mosses and liverworts); for example, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, yeasts, and bacteria, except those on or in a living person or other animals.

(18) "Fungicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any fungi.

(19) "Herbicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any weed.

(20) "Insect" means any of the numerous small invertebrate animals whose bodies are more or less obviously segmented, and which for the most part belong to the class insecta, comprising six-legged, usually winged forms, as, for example, beetles, bugs, bees, flies, and to other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs, for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and isopod crustaceans.

(21) "Insecticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any insects which may be present in any environment whatsoever.

(22) "Land" means all land and water areas, including airspace and all plants, animals, structures, buildings, devices, and contrivances, appurtenant to or situated on, fixed or mobile, including any used for transportation.

(23) "Nematocide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate nematodes.

(24) "Nematode" means any invertebrate animal of the phylum nemathelminthes and class nematoda, that is, unsegmented round worms with elongated, fusiform, or saclike bodies covered with cuticle, and inhabiting soil, water, plants or plant parts, may also be called nemas or eelworms.

(25) "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, or organized group of persons whether or not incorporated.

(26) "Pest" means, but is not limited to, any insect, rodent, nematode, snail, slug, weed, and any form of plant or animal life or virus, except virus on or in a living person or other animal, which is normally considered to be a pest, or which the director may declare to be a pest.

(27) "Pesticide" means, but is not limited to:

(a) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate any insect, rodent, snail, slug, fungus, weed, and any other form of plant or animal life or virus except virus on or in a living person or other animal which is normally considered to be a pest or which the director may declare to be a pest;

(b) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to be used as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant; and

(c) Any spray adjuvant, such as a wetting agent, spreading agent, deposit builder, adhesive, emulsifying agent, deflocculating agent, water modifier, or similar agent with or without toxic properties of its own intended to be used with any other pesticide as an aid to the application or effect thereof, and sold in a package or container separate from that of the pesticide with which it is to be used.

(28) "Pesticide advisory board" means the pesticide advisory board as provided for in this chapter.

(29) "Plant regulator" means any substance or mixture of substances intended through physiological action, to accelerate or retard the rate of growth or maturation, or to otherwise alter the behavior of ornamental or crop plants or their produce, but shall not include substances insofar as they are intended to be used as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants, or soil amendments.

(30) "Private applicator" means a certified applicator who uses or is in direct supervision of the use of (a) any EPA restricted use pesticide; or (b) any restricted use pesticide restricted to use only by certified applicators by the director, for the purposes of producing any agricultural commodity and for any associated noncrop application on land owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer or if applied without compensation other than trading of personal services between producers of agricultural commodities on the land of another person.

(31) "Private-commercial applicator" means a certified applicator who uses or supervises the use of (a) any EPA restricted use pesticide or (b) any restricted use pesticide restricted to use only by certified applicators for purposes other than the production of any agricultural commodity on lands owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer.

(32) "Restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide or device which, when used as directed or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, the director determines, subsequent to a hearing, requires additional restrictions for that use to prevent unreasonable adverse effects on the environment including people, lands, beneficial insects, animals, crops, and wildlife, other than pests.

(33) "Rodenticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate rodents, or any other vertebrate animal which the director may declare by rule to be a pest.

(34) "Snails or slugs" include all harmful mollusks.

(35) "Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment" means any unreasonable risk to people or the environment taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide, or as otherwise determined by the director.

(36) "Weed" means any plant which grows where not wanted.

(37) "Residential property" includes property less than one acre in size zoned as residential by a city, town, or county.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 17.21 RCW to read as follows:

(1) When a pesticide is to be applied to public and private school grounds, day care centers, parks, playgrounds, or residential property by a certified applicator, the certified applicator shall at the option of the owner or owner's representative: (a) Post the property; and/or (b) make available to the owner or owner's representative a written copy of the information, specifically health warnings to humans and pets, contained on the label of the pesticide to be applied.

(2) If the owner or the owner's representative chooses to have the property posted for a pesticide application, the certified applicator shall provide signs to post the treated area.

(3) Signs shall be posted at the time of the application and for at least the following twenty-four hours. For applications of pesticides which have a reentry interval established by the environmental protection agency, the applicator shall comply with the label requirements. The owner or occupant of the property receiving the application is responsible for the removal of the signs after the posting period or applicable reentry interval.

(4) Signs shall include the name and telephone number of the applicator of the pesticide.

(5) The director of the department of agriculture shall adopt rules establishing the size and lettering requirements of signs.

(6) State and local health departments and mosquito control districts when conducting mosquito control operations are exempt from the posting requirements of this section.