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For Release: Tuesday, September 18, 2007

DEC Issues Report on 2005 Pesticide Use in New York State

Violations Down for Third Straight Year

The number of companies cited for failing to report pesticides use in New York State dropped for the third consecutive year in 2005, according to a new report released today, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis announced.

Under the state's Pesticide Reporting Law, commercial pesticide applicators and sellers are required to annually report pesticide use and sales data to DEC. During 2005, applicators and sellers reported information on more than 6 million pesticide applications and sales to DEC. These reports show 16,919 pesticide applicators applying 17.6 million pounds and 2.8 million gallons of pesticides. For the 2004 reporting year, 20.6 million pounds and 2.7 million gallons were reported as applied; for 2003, 18.6 million pounds and 2.4 million gallons.

The Department took enforcement actions against 1,393 commercial applicators in 2005 for failing to submit required reports, compared to 1,663 in 2004 and 1,836 in 2003.

The public is reminded to use only New York State certified pesticide applicators for their pesticide applications. To check that an applicator is certified, go to www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/appweb.pdf or ask to see the applicator's New York State certification card.

The database, which was developed by DEC and Cornell University, contains information on tens of millions of pesticide applications and sales, beginning with the year 1997. Each year, after initial reports are submitted, DEC and Cornell perform extensive quality controls in order to present an accurate depiction of pesticide use and sales. It should be noted that the Department and Cornell are still conducting quality assurance validations on the 2005 data in order to provide users with the best data available. This will require occasional revisions to the data. Users are advised to revisit the website to ensure that they are using the most up-to-date data available.

The Pesticide Reporting Law allows health researchers to obtain information about the amounts and types of pesticides being applied in the state. Under this Law, certified pesticide applicators are required to report information for each pesticide application they make, including the name of the product; the product's United States Environmental Protection Agency federal registration number; the quantity applied; the product's unit of measure; the date of the application; and the street address, municipality, county and zip code of the application site.

Firms with commercial permits who sell pesticides to private applicators at wholesale or retail must report, for each sale, the name of the product purchased; U.S. EPA federal registration number; the date and quantity sold; the product's unit of measure; and the street address, municipality, county and zip code of the intended application.

The most common commercially-applied pesticide products as reported by commercial applicators in 2005 were Superchlor Disinfectant, totaling 392,899 gallons and Lesco Pre-M Plus Fertilizer Insecticide* totaling 2,010,094 pounds. (*It should be noted that this product contains a very small amount of pesticide combined with a large amount of fertilizer and other ingredients. The weight reported here is the weight of all ingredients, not the weight of pesticide alone.)

Enforcement actions were taken against applicators who failed to submit the required reports, and Orders on Consent were issued to approximately 1,393 certified commercial pesticide applicators and permit holders who did not initially report for 2005. Non-reporting applicators and distributors were assessed civil penalties (typically $250), and certain applicators elected to voluntarily surrender their certifications. The result of this surrender is they are no longer certified to make commercial pesticide applications. Those entities who did not settle the violation will not be granted renewal privileges until their violation is resolved.

Attached are the county totals for commercial pesticide applicator use in New York State for 2005 and 2004. The data is available at http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/27506.html.

* Note: The quantity of pesticides commercially applied in a county is the sum of the gallons and pounds reported above. In other words, the gallons and pounds in the chart do not reflect two ways of speaking about a single volume of pesticides.

The above table does not include quantities which were reported where the county information was either missing, invalid or illegible.

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