Transition to Diversified Agriculture Multiplies Problems for Regulators

posted in: June 1996 | 0

At the moment, Hawai`i is in the throes of transition between plantation agriculture and diversified agriculture. Plantation agriculture left its mark on the state’s groundwater supplies, but it is not clear that the legacy of diversified agriculture will be any better. Indeed, it could be worse.

Under federal law, application of the most dangerous pesticides, called restricted use pesticides, must be regulated closely. The state Department of Agriculture has delegated authority from the Environmental Protection Agency to oversee the sale and application of such pesticides, as well as the instruction and certification of the people who apply them. In addition, the department is charged with enforcing the state’s pesticide law.

While plantation agriculture posed its own set of regulatory difficulties, the Department of Agriculture generally did not worry about compliance with the basics. Year after year, the pesticides were the same, as were the people who applied them. A review of Department of Agriculture files for three recent years shows no warning letters or notices of violation were sent to the largest agribusinesses in the state.

Regulation of diversified agriculture, however, is proving far more difficult, to judge from the number of warning letters. As one DOA staffer put it, the problem with diversified ag is diversified pesticide use. Adding to the confusion is the relatively high percentage of immigrant farmers — Laotian, Thai, Korean — who cannot read the label instructions.

From a survey of the DOA files, some of the more frequent problems appear to involve farmers who:

* Apply pesticides to crops for which the chemicals have not been approved or at times when application is not allowed (for example, late in the growing season, when residues might remain on produce when it is harvested);

* Apply more of the chemicals than label instructions permit;

* May be certified restricted-use pesticide applicators themselves, but sell or give products they have bought to people who are not certified;

* Fail to take the necessary precautions to protect their own safety or that of others;

* Dispose of chemicals or containers illegally.

Many of the recent warning notices have been sent to farmers where sugar plantations have recently closed — especially in east Hawai`i, from the Hamakua Coast to Ka`u, and the Waialua area of O`ahu.

But small farmers are not the only violators. State agencies and the large retailers and wholesalers of pesticides also turn up frequently in DOA records.

In 1993 and 1994, for example, the Department of Agriculture twice found sister state agencies to be in violation. In March 1993, a Department of Health worker in Lihue was found to be using chlorpyrifos granules (for mosquito control) at a rate nearly 10 times higher than that currently allowed. (The worker was using instructions that had expired in 1987.) The worker was issued a warning notice.

In 1994, the Department of General Services — again on Kaua`i — was cited with a more serious Notice of Finding of Violation. Among other things, one of its workers had acknowledged routinely pouring pesticide rinsate down the drain, while another worker had been spotted killing weeds around the Department of Agriculture’s own building without wearing the required protective gear.

Retailers seem to get into trouble when restricted-use pesticides are sold to non-certified applicators. When this occurs, the retailer may face a fine and the individual who made the sale may have his or her license to sell restricted-use pesticides suspended.

Volume 6, Number 12 June 1996

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