Department of Pesticide Regulation

SELECTING CHEMIGATION SITE INSPECTIONS AS A FOCUSED ACTIVITY FOR 2002/03 NEGOTIATED WORK PLAN

This will be the second year that improving statewide compliance with chemigation requirements has been identified as a focused activity in the Department of Pesticide Regulation 2002/03 Prioritization Plan (ENF 02-20). Incidents involving chemigation have lead to contamination of ground water and bird kills with follow-up inspections indicating a range of problems from non-compliance with label language to faulty chemigation equipment. To encourage uniform enforcement of violations of chemigation requirements, the Environmental Monitoring Branch developed the Chemigation Compliance Evaluation Focused Activity Plan (ENF 02-20 attachment). The plan includes: chemigation training designed for the regulated community focusing on the enforcement aspects of the label and key equipment components of a chemigation system; identification and location of chemigation sites through the restricted material permit process; chemigation site inspections; and completion of a final chemigation focus activity report to the Enforcement Branch.

Counties interested in participating in this focused activity should contact their Senior Pesticide Use Specialist (SPUS) liaison. Counties listed below have already expressed interest in participating in the Chemigation Compliance Evaluation as a focused activity. SPUSs will be contacting these counties to negotiate chemigation site inspections as part of the county negotiated work plan for the 2002/03 fiscal year.

Interested Counties      Possibly Interested Counties
Los Angeles                      Fresno
Monterey                           Kings
Napa                                 Mendocino
Riverside                          San Joaquin
Sonoma                            Stanislaus
San Luis Obispo               San Mateo
Ventura                            Santa Clara
                                        Tulare

Training during the 2002/03 fiscal year will be provided by the Center of Irrigation Technology. Although training will be focused towards the regulated community, counties are invited to attend the training sessions. Last year most of the counties sent at least one person to the training and may just need a refresher. Please contact Ms. Joy Dias, Environmental Research Scientist, at (916) 324-4183 or jdias@cdpr.ca.gov for training locations, dates and times.

The following questions can be used to identify and locate potential chemigation sites, for both restricted and non-restricted pesticides, when issuing restricted material permits to growers.

• Do you inject or plan to inject any pesticides through your irrigation system?
• Do you apply fertilizer through your irrigation system?
• Which pesticides allow for chemigation that could be compared with those listed on a permit? (You can contact Ms. Joy Dias to obtain a list of pesticides.)
• Which crops?
• When do you plan to inject?
• Do you contract out with a company to do the injection for you? If so, what company?
• Where is your chemigation site located? Identify it on your permit map(s).

During inspection of a chemigation system, please complete the attached grower interview and site inspection form in conjunction with a mix and load inspection and/or equipment inspection using the Pesticide Use Monitoring Inspection form (Form PR-ENF-021). Please continue to forward these forms with your monthly Report #5 to Ms. Tanya Smith. If you have any questions, please contact your SPUS Liaison.

cc:  Ms. Joy Dias, Environmental Research Scientist (w/Attachment)
      Ms. Tanya Smith, Program Technician I (w/Attachment)
      Mr. Daniel J. Merkley, Agricultural Commissioner Liaison (w/Attachment)