BILL REQ. #:  H-3883.2 

Prefiled 12/03/07. Read first time 01/14/08.   Referred to Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources.

     AN ACT Relating to an evaluation of alternatives to the roadside application of pesticides; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The department of health shall convene and chair a work group to study policies, strategies, and alternatives related to the roadside application of pesticides. The work group shall make recommendations to the legislature on practical and cost-effective opportunities to reduce or eliminate the roadside application of pesticides in Washington.
     (2) The work group shall be established by the secretary of the department of health and include representatives from the state department of health, the pesticide incident reporting and tracking review panel, the state noxious weed control board, the department of transportation, the department of ecology, the department of agriculture, local government, industry, nongovernmental environmental organizations, and other stakeholders as deemed appropriate by the department.
     (3) In carrying out its assignment, the work group shall include, but not be limited to, the following considerations:
     (a) The environmental health effects on communities and individuals resulting from the roadside application of pesticides;
     (b) Existing data and research including the report "Assessment of Alternatives in Roadside Vegetative Management" prepared for the state transportation commission, December 2005, and results of follow-on field trials and pilots of alternative practices;
     (c) Monitoring data showing soil, groundwater, and water body contamination resulting from the roadside application of pesticides;
     (d) Policies and strategies used in other states, regions, cities, and countries that reduce or eliminate the roadside application of pesticides;
     (e) State laws, rules, fees, certification programs, incentives, and policies that may enhance the ability to reduce or eliminate the roadside application of pesticides and encourage the use of effective alternatives;
     (f) Cost comparisons for alternatives that reduce or eliminate the roadside application of pesticides; and
     (g) Potential financial incentives and sources of funding to help reduce or eliminate the roadside application of pesticides.
     (4) Recommendations shall include practical and cost-effective policies, strategies, and alternatives to reduce or eliminate the roadside application of pesticides in Washington and may include statutory or regulatory changes, incentives, and other approaches.
     (5) The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (a) "Pesticide" includes, but is not limited to:
     (i) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate any insect, rodent, nematode, snail, slug, fungus, weed, and any other form of plant or animal life or virus, except virus on or in living man or other animal, which is normally considered to be a pest or which the director of agriculture may declare to be a pest;
     (ii) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to be used as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant;
     (iii) 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; or
     (iv) Any fungicide, rodenticide, herbicide, insecticide, and nematocide.
     (b) "Roadside pesticide application" means application of pesticides by spraying or other methods to roadside shoulders, medians, ditches; near canals and water bodies; and to other road-related maintenance locations for the purpose of vegetative management including noxious weed control.
     (6) Recommendations shall be presented in a report to the governor and to the legislature by December 1, 2008.