SENATE BILL REPORT

                            SB 6327

                    AS OF FEBRUARY 1, 1994

Brief Description:  Requiring the adoption of integrated pest management programs.

SPONSORS: Senators Prentice, Fraser and Sutherland

SENATE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE

Staff:  Bob Lee (786‑7404)

Hearing Dates: February 1, 1994

BACKGROUND:

The use of integrated pest management programs by public schools has been encouraged by the Environmental Protection Agency through the publication and dissemination of informational material to schools.  The purpose of the informational material is to encourage use of integrated pest management to reduce the use of chemicals and provide economical and effective pest suppression.

At least one other state has enacted a statute that requires that schools adopt integrated pest management programs that meet the standards adopted by the state Board of Education.

SUMMARY:

The Department of Health is assigned the responsibility to provide guidance and technical assistance in developing programs for integrated pest management in public schools and libraries.

Integrated pest management is defined as the selection and implementation of the pest control strategy least hazardous to human health and the environment and consists of:

1) prevention of pest problems;

2) monitoring and evaluation of pests, damage and results of treatment;

3) tolerable pest population levels;

4) use of natural control agents;

5) reliance to extent possible on nonhazardous biological, mechanical and cultural treatments to control pests;

6) application of pesticides in a manner that minimizes damage to ecosystem's natural controls;

7) use of least toxic pesticide treatments only after other methods have been evaluated; and

8) selection of treatment methods that are most cost-effective in short and long term.

The Department of Health is to adopt rules by June 30, 1995 requiring each public school district and library to adopt an integrated pest management program to protect children and adults from excessive pesticide exposure.  The rules are to provide for phasing in compliance over three years. 

School district boards and the board of trustees of library districts are to adopt an integrated pest management program within one year of the effective date of the rules adopted by the Department of Health. 

The Department of Health is to award grant funds, to the extent they are available, to school districts and libraries to carry out the purposes of this act.

Appropriation:  none 

Revenue:  none

Fiscal Note:   requested