Z-0709.1 _______________________________________________
SENATE BILL 5533
_______________________________________________
State of Washington 57th Legislature 2001 Regular Session
By Senators Eide, Rasmussen, Swecker, Patterson, Fairley, Zarelli, Roach, Jacobsen, Kohl‑Welles, Costa, McAuliffe, Spanel, Franklin, Shin, B. Sheldon, Constantine, Hargrove, Kastama, Prentice, Kline, Stevens and Gardner; by request of Department of Agriculture
Read first time 01/25/2001. Referred to Committee on Education.
AN ACT Relating to posting and notification of pesticide applications at schools; amending RCW 17.21.020 and 17.21.410; adding a new section to chapter 17.21 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.320 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.195 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 74.15 RCW; and providing an effective date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 17.21.020 and 1994 c 283 s 1 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) "Agricultural land" means land on which an agricultural commodity is produced or land that is in a government-recognized conservation reserve program. This definition does not apply to private gardens where agricultural commodities are produced for personal consumption.
(3) "Antimicrobial pesticide" means a pesticide that is used for the control of microbial pests, including but not limited to viruses, bacteria, algae, and protozoa, and is intended for use as a disinfectant or sanitizer.
(4) "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.
(((4))) (5)
"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.
(((5))) (6)
"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 or the director as a restricted use pesticide.
(((6))) (7)
"Commercial pesticide applicator" means any person who engages in the
business of applying pesticides to the land of another.
(((7))) (8)
"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.
(((8))) (9)
"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.
(((9))) (10)
"Department" means the Washington state department of agriculture.
(((10))) (11)
"Desiccant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to
artificially accelerate the drying of plant tissues.
(((11))) (12)
"Device" means any instrument or contrivance intended to trap,
destroy, control, repel, or mitigate pests, but not including equipment used
for the application of pesticides when sold separately from the pesticides.
(((12))) (13)
"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 and shall require that the certified
applicator be physically present at the application site and that the person
making the application be in voice and visual contact with the certified
applicator at all times during the application. Direct supervision of an
aerial apparatus means the pilot of the aircraft must be appropriately
certified.
(((13))) (14)
"Director" means the director of the department or a duly authorized
representative.
(((14))) (15)
"Engage in business" means any application of pesticides by any
person upon lands or crops of another.
(((15))) (16)
"EPA" means the United States environmental protection agency.
(((16))) (17)
"EPA restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide classified for restricted
use by the administrator, EPA.
(((17))) (18)
"FIFRA" means the federal insecticide, fungicide and rodenticide act
as amended (61 Stat. 163, 7 U.S.C. Sec. 136 et seq.).
(((18))) (19)
"Fumigant" means any pesticide product or combination of products
that is a vapor or gas or forms a vapor or gas on application and whose method
of pesticidal action is through the gaseous state.
(((19))) (20)
"Fungi" means all nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophytes (all
nonchlorophyll-bearing plants of lower order than mosses and liverworts); for
example, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, and yeasts, except those on or in a
living person or other animals.
(((20))) (21)
"Fungicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to
prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any fungi.
(((21))) (22)
"Herbicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to
prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any weed or other higher plant.
(((22))) (23)
"Immediate service call" means a landscape application to satisfy an
emergency customer request for service, or a treatment to control a pest to
landscape plants.
(((23))) (24)
"Insect" means any small invertebrate animal, in any life stage,
whose adult form is segmented and which generally belongs to the class insecta,
comprised of six-legged, usually winged forms, as, for example, beetles, bugs,
bees, and flies. The term insect shall also apply 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.
(((24))) (25)
"Insecticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended
to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any insect.
(((25))) (26)
"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.
(((26))) (27)
"Landscape application" means an application ((by a certified
applicator)) of any EPA registered pesticide to any exterior landscape ((plants
found)) area around residential property, commercial properties such
as apartments or shopping centers, parks, golf courses, schools including
nursery schools and licensed day cares, or cemeteries or similar areas. This
definition shall not apply to: (a) Applications made by certified private
applicators; (b) mosquito abatement, gypsy moth eradication, or similar
wide-area pest control programs sponsored by governmental entities; and (c)
commercial pesticide applicators making structural applications.
(((27))) (28)
"Nematocide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to
prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate nematodes.
(((28))) (29)
"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. Nematodes may also be called nemas or
eelworms.
(((29))) (30)
"Person" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation,
or organized group of persons whether or not incorporated.
(((30))) (31)
"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,
bacteria, or other microorganisms on or in a living person or other animal or
in or on processed food or beverages or pharmaceuticals, which is normally
considered to be a pest, or which the director may declare to be a pest.
(((31))) (32)
"Pesticide" means, but is not limited to:
(a) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate any 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 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.
(((32))) (33)
"Pesticide advisory board" means the pesticide advisory board as
provided for in this chapter.
(((33))) (34)
"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.
(((34))) (35)
"Private applicator" means a certified applicator who uses or is in
direct supervision of the use of any pesticide classified by the EPA or the
director as a restricted use pesticide, 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.
(((35))) (36)
"Private-commercial applicator" means a certified applicator who uses
or supervises the use of any pesticide classified by the EPA or the director as
a restricted use pesticide for purposes other than the production of any
agricultural commodity on lands owned or rented by the applicator or the
applicator's employer.
(((36))) (37)
"Residential property" includes property less than one acre in size
zoned as residential by a city, town, or county, but does not include property
zoned as agricultural or agricultural homesites.
(((37))) (38)
"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.
(((38))) (39)
"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.
(((39))) (40)
"School facility" means any facility used for licensed day care
center, kindergarten, or elementary or secondary school purposes. School
facility includes the buildings or structures, playgrounds, landscape areas,
athletic fields, school vehicles, or any other area of school property.
(41) "Snails or slugs" include all harmful mollusks.
(((40))) (42)
"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.
(((41)))
(43) "Weed" means any plant which grows where it is not
wanted.
Sec. 2. RCW 17.21.410 and 1994 c 283 s 33 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) A certified applicator making a landscape application to:
(a) Residential property shall at the time of the application place a marker at the usual point of entry to the property. If the application is made to an isolated spot that is not a substantial portion of the property, the applicator shall only be required to place a marker at the application site. If the application is in a fenced or otherwise isolated backyard, no marker is required.
(b) Commercial properties such as apartments or shopping centers shall at the time of application place a marker in a conspicuous location at or near each site being treated.
(c) A golf course shall at the time of the application place a marker at the first tee and tenth tee or post the information in a conspicuous location such as on a central message board.
(d) A school, nursery school, or licensed day care shall at the time of the application place a marker at each primary point of entry to the school grounds. A school employee making an application to a school facility shall comply with the posting requirements in section 3 of this act.
(e) A park, cemetery, rest stop, or similar property as may be defined in rule shall at the time of the application place a marker at each primary point of entry.
(2) An individual
making a landscape application to a school grounds, nursery school, or licensed
day care, and not otherwise covered by subsection (1) of this section, shall ((be
required to comply with the posting requirements in subsection (1)(d) of this
section)) at the time of the application place a marker at each primary
point of entry to the school grounds.
(3) The marker shall be
a minimum of four inches by five inches. It shall have the words: "THIS
LANDSCAPE HAS BEEN TREATED BY" as the headline and "FOR MORE
INFORMATION PLEASE CALL" as the footer. Larger size requirements for
markers may be established in rule for specific applications. The company name
and service mark ((with the applicator's telephone number where information
can be obtained)) shall be included between the headline and the footer on
((the marker. The letters and service marks)) a marker placed by a
commercial applicator. The applicator's telephone number where information can
be obtained about the application shall be included in the footer of the
marker. Markers shall be printed in colors contrasting to the background.
(4) The property owner
or tenant shall remove the marker according to the schedule established in
rule. A ((commercial)) certified applicator or individual who
complies with this section is not liable for the removal of markers by
unauthorized persons or removal outside the designated removal time.
(5) A certified applicator or individual who complies with this section cannot be held liable for personal property damage or bodily injury resulting from markers that are placed as required.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 17.21 RCW to read as follows:
(1) As used in this section, "school" means a licensed day care center, kindergarten, and elementary or secondary school.
(2) A school shall provide written notification annually or upon enrollment to parents or guardians of students and employees describing the school's pest control policies and methods, including the posting and notification requirements of this section.
(3) A school shall establish a system for notifying interested parents or guardians of students and employees at least forty-eight hours before a pesticide application to a school facility. The notification system shall include posting of the notification in a prominent place in the main office of the school.
(4) All notifications to interested parents, guardians, and employees shall include the heading "Notice: Pesticide Application" and, at a minimum, shall state:
(a) The product name of the pesticide to be applied;
(b) The intended date and time of application;
(c) The location to which the pesticide is to be applied;
(d) The pest to be controlled; and
(e) The name and phone number of a contact person at the school.
(5) A school facility application must be made within forty‑eight hours following the intended date and time stated in the notification or the notification process shall be repeated.
(6) A school shall, at the time of application, post notification signs for all pesticide applications made to school facilities unless the application is otherwise required to be posted by a certified applicator under the provisions of RCW 17.21.410(1)(d).
(a) Notification signs for applications made to school grounds by school employees shall be placed at the location of the application and at each primary point of entry to the school grounds. The signs shall be a minimum of four inches by five inches and shall include the words: "THIS LANDSCAPE HAS BEEN TREATED BY YOUR SCHOOL" as the headline and "FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CALL" as the footer. The footer shall provide the name and telephone number of a contact person at the school.
(b) Notification signs for applications made to school facilities other than school grounds shall be posted at the location of the application. The signs shall be a minimum of eight and one‑half by eleven inches and shall include the heading "Notice: Pesticide Application" and, at a minimum, shall state:
(i) The product name of the pesticide applied;
(ii) The date and time of application;
(iii) The location to which the pesticide was applied;
(iv) The pest to be controlled; and
(v) The name and phone number of a contact person at the school.
(c) Notification signs shall be printed in colors contrasting to the background.
(d) Notification signs shall remain in place for at least twenty‑four hours from the time the application is completed. In the event the pesticide label requires a restricted entry interval greater than twenty‑four hours, the notification sign shall remain in place consistent with the restricted entry interval time as required by the label.
(7) A school facility application does not include the application of antimicrobial pesticides or the placement of insect or rodent baits that are not accessible to children.
(8) The prenotification requirements of this section do not apply if the school facility application is made when the school is not occupied by students for at least two consecutive days after the application.
(9) The prenotification requirements of this section do not apply to any emergency school facility application for control of any pest that poses an immediate human health or safety threat, such as an application to control stinging insects.
(10) A school shall make the records of all pesticide applications to school facilities required under this chapter readily accessible to interested persons.
(11) A school is not liable for the removal of signs by unauthorized persons. A school that complies with this section may not be held liable for personal property damage or bodily injury resulting from signs that are placed as required.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 28A.320 RCW to read as follows:
Schools as defined in section 3 of this act shall provide notice of pesticide use to parents or guardians of students and employees pursuant to chapter 17.21 RCW.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 28A.195 RCW to read as follows:
Schools as defined in section 3 of this act shall provide notice of pesticide use to parents or guardians of students and employees pursuant to chapter 17.21 RCW.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. A new section is added to chapter 74.15 RCW to read as follows:
Licensed day care centers shall provide notice of pesticide use to parents or guardians of students and employees pursuant to chapter 17.21 RCW.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. This act takes effect July 1, 2002.
--- END ---