Prepare for Pesticide Spray Season – Part I

This notebook could be titled with your name, the year, and “Possible Pesticide Spray Drift Incidents”. Then list the following data and fill out each line when you actually observe a spray drift incident:

• Date, Time, Location of incident
• Type of applicator if known (ground rig or aerial applicator)
• Wind speed and direction, if possible
• Brief description of exactly what was witnessed
• Name of company and/or individual who applied the pesticide
• Name of the person who owns the property where the pesticide was applied
• Name of the chemical(s) applied
• Witnesses (if any)
• Documentation with photos or videos: yes or no.

As you can see by the last entry, in addition to your pesticide spray notebook, be sure to have your digital camera or video camera charged and ready for use. If you are on your property when an incident happens, then photograph it or video tape it. If there is a spray plane flying over your home at low altitude, try to video the “N” number on the plane.

There are other things which must be heeded always. If, for instance, you are directly sprayed or feel you have received a good dose of spray drift, you need to call 9-1-1 or go to the hospital immediately. Here in Illinois, there was one incident where a lady was drifted with a pesticide as her neighboring farm was sprayed with chemicals. She went to the hospital feeling woozy and nauseous. She could taste it in her mouth.  The doctor called the company who applied the chemical. The company refused to tell the doctor what chemical was used in the spraying. Most of the time this kind of cruelty does not happen. Most farmers and company applicators are more forthcoming.

Also, if you have children or pets outside and you see a spray plane or ground rig upwind from you, get your children/pets in the house quickly and close all windows and doors.

During and after spray drift incidents, it is vital to stay calm. This can be difficult to do when you see a foggy cloud coming right for your beautiful vegetable garden or orchard. But it always helps to keep a clear head and know what you must do to prevent more incidents from occurring in the
future.

How to ask for a Pesticide Complaint Form from your enforcement agency and what to do with it.

(From Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice, by Jill Lindsey Harrison)

“…pesticide drift emerges as a systematic though invisible example of widespread chemical contamination.”

“The states hold the primary responsibility for enforcing federal pesticide laws.”

One of the most important steps to take in order to stop and prevent future pesticide drift is to file a complaint with your state’s enforcement agency. According to Jill Harrison, author of the above quotes, the state department of agriculture is responsible for handling pesticide complaints in most states. There are six states which have a separate agency to enforce pesticide complaints. These states are: Alaska, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. Find out your state’s contact information before you need it and add it to your dedicated Spray Drift Notebook, as outlined in How To Prepare for the Pesticide Spray Season, Part I. In addition, add the following contacts to your Spray Drift Notebook:

1. Driftwatch – if your state has this organization, Join It! (In Illinois it is on the Illinois Department of Agriculture website.) Its purpose is to show farmers and spraying companies where farms with sensitive crop (including bees) are located, so they will not spray near them. If your state does not have this organization, please work with Leighanne Hahn at Purdue University to get it in your state.

2. Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund – If you are a farmer and you have a spray drift incident (and the incident meets with the mission statement of Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund) you can be represented at no cost to you. A donation of $125 for farmers, $50 for consumers, will make you a member. Their mission statement is: “Defending the rights and broadening the freedoms of family farms and protecting consumer access to raw milk and nutrient dense foods.”

3. Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund has a mission of: “Building sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature.” This includes “chemical trespass.”

Have these organizations, their websites and their phone numbers written in your Dedicated Notebook.

For this article, I will use the State of Illinois Department of Agriculture as an example of how to report a spray drift incident.

How To Report A Pesticide Drift Incident:

1. Contact the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) for a Pesticide Incident Complaint Form. You can do this by calling IDOA at 1-800-641-3934 or contact: www.agr.state.il.us/Environment/Pesticide/pestuses.html. (Your state will have a similar protocol.)

2. You can either have the form mailed to you or download it from the agency’s website. Naturally time is of the essence here, so we encourage you to download the form as quickly as possible.

3. Fill out the form. If you have already written down the pertinent information concerning your incident in your dedicated Spray Drift Notebook, you have a leg up. If not, compose a straight forward, facts-only, complete recounting of the incident. Be sure to include all conversations and correspondence between yourself and the pesticide applicator.

The form will likely have a section for Complainant Information where you fill in your personal information. Under the Complaint Information section, there will be space for: Date of incident; Applicator type involved; Name of applicator (if known); Company name (if known); address; telephone number; Method of application (ground, aerial, liquid spray or granular); Chemical involved (if known); and Specific nature of the complaint.

Remember, your complaint can still be filed even if you cannot fill in all the Complaint information and a witness is not required. What is important is to file the complaint with as much information as you can provide and return it to the IDOA so the investigation can begin.

Below is an actual written description of a 2012 incident as included under the Specific Nature of the Complaint on the IDOA Pesticide incident Complaint Form. The IDOA did find a violation:

“Our two sons and myself were outdoors when the first flight over our home occurred. No warning was given to us, in respect for our bee hives located in the back three acres of our property. The pilot released the spray as he entered into our prairie – where the hives are located – about 200′ away from our home. The smell was so intense, and since he was spraying so close (to) our home, the children ran indoors, and we closed all the windows it was that thick. I then proceeded to video tape the plane closely passing over our home and then again release the spray a 2nd and 3rd time, each time into our prairie and onto our hives. The pilot continued his spraying in the outer fields, and then, as I was leaving by car, and I was parked in the drive, he passed feet away from the tops of our trees on the north side of our property and released a “puff” of spray directly onto my garden and flew nearly 10′ from the top (of) our home.”

4. Make a copy of the completed form and mail it to your enforcement agency. In this case mail it to: Illinois Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Environmental Programs, State Fairgrounds, P. O. Box 19281, Springfield, IL 62794-9281. Keep a copy of your completed form in your Spray Drift Notebook.

5. Complaints must be received by IDOA within 30 days of the incident or within 30 days of when the damage was first noticed. Your state will have similar time constraints. Be sure you know what they are, and follow them. As previously stated, time is of the essence, so get your complaint filed as soon as you are able.

6. If you have the financial means to do so, we encourage you to send samples of affected plants to a third party laboratory for testing. You can find recommended labs at www.spraydriftillinois.com. It’s important to note that the state department of agriculture will not give credence to the results from a lab other than their own lab. However, it is still another important piece of action to take – especially if you are working with the chemical sprayer’s insurance company or your case ever becomes part of a lawsuit.

7. Continue to keep detailed notes of every conversation, phone call and correspondences concerning your pesticide drift complaint.

8. To help other organizations keep track of spray drift incidents across the United States, please contact the following with your complaint: National Pesticide Information Center and Spray Drift Education Network.

What happens next?

The Inspection

“Everyone deserves to have a place free from chemicals.” (J. Heim)

You have suffered pesticide damage, either to your person or to your property; documented it as best you could; filled out a Pesticide Incident Complaint Form and sent it to your state regulatory agency.

Now the call comes from an inspector representing the Department of Agriculture or your state’s regulatory agency. Here’s what to do next:

1. Set up a time to meet that is convenient for you. If you want someone else to be there with you, plan this out in advance, and know what times that person is available.

2. Have on hand copies of your photos and videos, and your Spray Drift Notebook with any notes that are important.

3. When the inspector arrives, he will have you sign a “Notice of Inspection” or something similar. In Illinois, our form has the following boxes:

Signature of Individual, Date: Hour: (inspection takes place)

Name of Individual; Title

Firm Name: Firm Address

Signature of IDA Employee: County

Under this will be the legal verbiage, such as: NOTICE OF INSPECTION IS HEREBY GIVEN PURSUANT TO THE ILLINOIS PESTICIDE ACT, 415ICTS60/1ET.SEQ.F THE ILLINOIS REVISED STATUTES.

(Below this will be:)

VIOLATIONS SUSPECTED:

Be sure to look at this line and see what the inspector has written before you sign it. Usually the inspector will have written in the case number such as: “Misuse Investigation Case # such and such.” We had an inspector (supposedly “new” but he didn’t try this the year before when he was even “newer,”) who wrote in the word “None” after Violations Suspected before the Notice of Inspection was even signed by the complainant and before the inspector even looked at the damage. This was missed by three complainants but caught by the fourth. After some vocalization about this, the practice was discontinued. If this happens to you, do not sign it. If the inspector says you have to sign it if he is to inspect your property, then call his office and ask why they have already written in the word “none.” (Write down word-for-word what the office says.) In fact, if there is anything you disagree with, do not sign it. Instead contact the enforcement agency, or Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Pesticide Action Network or National Pesticide Information Center. After you have signed the Notice of Inspection Form, you should receive a copy of it. Keep it for your records.

It’s important to note here that a drift incident can happen with NO apparent damage. Anita and Brian Poeppel (co-founders of Spray Drift Education Network) had no apparent damage on their foliage. (They had seen the farmer spraying his field with high winds blowing the pesticide toward the Poeppel’s farm.) The apple tree foliage that was collected on their first complaint looked fine, but evidence of pesticide was found on it almost 30 days later.

4. If you hand over any samples of damaged plants or sprayed clothing, the inspector should also give you a “Receipt for Pesticide Samples.”

While we’re on the subject of items that may have been contaminated with pesticides, it is important to stress the complainant MUST insist the inspector take lab samples from the area most likely to have received the drift. The whole investigation hinges on the detection of chemical residue. The inspector will not ASK for any evidence you save – clothing, etc. The complainant must be his/her own advocate since the inspector rarely is aggressive in collecting evidence.

This inspection may be the one and only time the complainant can submit evidence into the official record for the complaint. The university professors who were doused with pesticide drift on a Macomb golf course found this out the hard way. The inspector didn’t ask for the contaminated clothing. The complainant and wife expected the IDOA to come back again to collect evidence. Instead the letter with no violation arrived and the clothes were still in the freezer, no doubt contaminated with pesticide.

5. During the actual Inspection:

Point out the areas affected.

Remember what the inspector says, or write down any comments he makes.

Be careful what you say! Although this may not happen in all cases, we have had several cases where the inspector buddied up to the organic farmer, got him talking about all kinds of things and then took the comments out of context, making the organic farmer sound like a zealot, or down right dumb. (Later on, after the case is closed you will write through The Freedom of Information Act to received your entire case paperwork and be able to view what the inspector actually wrote down – which is often nothing like what you thought.)

6. Be courteous, firm and factual.

7. At the end of your inspection, the inspector will tell you that the investigation will continue. The inspector will need to interview the farmer/company which did the spraying for his/their side of the incident. He will talk with them about the chemicals used, the wind speed, etc.

Here are some actual interesting happenings at pesticide damage inspections last year in Illinois:

During one beehive inspection, the inspector told the complainant (the author),

“Well, there are no dead bees around your hives.”

To which, I replied, “When the bee field force is out in the fields and they are sprayed with insecticide, they do not fly home to die near the threshold of the hive so we can count them. They are never seen again.” (Not to mention the inspector arrived days after the insecticide spray incident.)

Another case involved John, a vineyard owner, who did not see the actual spray drift of his 3 acres of grapes, as he was at work. But he did see damage – small at first – and then more and more. He realized there were pastures and corn fields around, and put in a complaint. The vines closest to the road he lives on were the most damaged. Indignantly, John told me later the inspector tried to imply it was John who caused the problem with what he sprayed on his own grapes!

In another case, which also involved bees, the inspector said he wanted to see more than a few dead bees around the hive. In fact, he would really like to have a quart jar of them.

Sometimes it seems like you can’t win for losing.

***

Here are some excerpts – well-written in colloquial fashion – that I want to share with you taken from the Lee-Ogle County ECOVig, entitled, “The Great Grove Creek Crayfish Kill.”

Who gives a damn about crayfish?

Well, I know I do…and I’ve got this six year old great-grandson, T.J. and I’m pretty sure he does, too.

I’m down at the creek crossing hookin’ up my 1″pump and since the riffle where I’d harvested crayfish just the am before was right there beside me, I decided ta take a look ta see how many I’d missed. Right off I spot a big one layin’ belly up, and I’m thinkin’ it’s a shedder. But when I investigate further I discover it’s whole, and just dead. Fresh dead and not rotten.

Then I spot another smaller one layin’ maybe two feet away. And it’s whole and just dead, too. Then I went ta pokin’ round more and had no trouble findin’ lots more in the same condition. Then it became crystal clear that all crayfish in the area, all of ém (not one live one) were stone dead. And then on top some of the protruding rocks I discovered the fresh dead bodies of dragonfly nymphs, which had crawled up there while still alive.

It hit me – Chemicals!

This had to be a chemical kill. I checked five different riffle sites just on our ground here. Many dead but not one live crayfish. And, except for the fishes, the under rock community had suffered a hit as well. As ya might imagine, my temper started risin.’ And I’ve got one, believe me.

Not knowing what to do I called the office of the State D.N.R. in Sterling. “A crayfish kill?” says the lady who’d answered questions with air of skepticism. “Yeah, Crayfish. My stream was alive with ’em yesterday, and now they’re all dead.” Well, she wants ta know if I’m filing a complaint. And “Yes, I certainly was.” She took down pertinent info, but gave me very little hope that an investigation could be conducted soon. … That’s when I decided I’d better go and collect and preserve the evidence.

(He calls around and talks to someone else from a company.)

They subcontract out aerial spraying. He gave me the name of the flying service and told me that the chemical used was called, “Tombstone.” I called the flyin’ company, got a secretary. After me tellin’ her why I was callin’, she took down my name and number. Told me somebody’d get back ta me.

Since the D.N.R. hadn’t gotten back to me I called the E.P.A. “Crayfish?” the fella responds. “Yeah, crayfish.” He asked me if there were any fish involved? I hadn’t seen evidence of dead fish. Well….that might be a problem. There were plenty of regulations in place with respect to fish, but he wasn’t aware of anything on crayfish.

“Yer kiddin’ me,” was my comeback. “You’ve got to have something on habitat degradation in general. I mean we’re talking about messing with the stream’s food chain. Disrupting ecological balance! You’ve got to have some base regulation that this sort of thing falls under?”

I got a thoughtful response. He’d check.

He promised he’d get back to me. And in not too long he did respond, tellin’ me the people I wanted to talk to on this were the Il. Dept. of Ag.

(He contacts IDOA and fills out the complaint form. An inspector comes out.)

We do basic information exchange right there on his car’s hood. That done he wants me to take him down to the creek where I’d first discovered dead crayfish. I jump on my four-wheeler and he follows me.

Now this is like eight days after the kill. He stands there at streams edge and peers into running water, obviously reluctant to get his feet wet. I’m in the water with sandals on, explaining how and what I’d discovered. I turned a few rocks from under which crayfish once scurried. I explained to him the extent of my search, the dead evidence I’d collected.

From there he’d go check records of flying company He’d file his report and send it down to Springfield. Anything from fines to nothing might result from this. He was up front with me. Lots of time this stuff just gets lost in the shuffle. I told him that I mostly understood. And my expectations weren’t really all that high.

In a few days T.J.’s coming fer another visit. I’m going to try to explain this crayfish kill to him as best I can.

Chemical agricultural. I wonder if he’ll understand, right off, how he’s a victim of it, too. How all of us are. Us and the environment.

Powerful stuff, EcoVig. I couldn’t have said it better.

In my next blog entry, we’ll talk about waiting for  in Part IV: The Wait.

The outcome of your inspection IV

When the wind is blowing in your direction and you observe chemical ground rigs or aerial pilots spraying pesticides next to your property, you now know what actions you should be taking if you suspect spray drift has happened to you. As previously explained in Part I, and II, you have documented your incident and taken photos and or videos. You then reported your incident to the proper enforcement agency. After you reported your incident to your state’s regulatory agency, they sent out an inspector to observe and document the damage.

During this time you’ve likely engaged in talks with the sprayer or the owner of the property which may be on-going, or have ended abruptly.

Waiting for the “verdict” after your inspection by the state regulatory agency usually takes about 3-4 weeks – at least that is what we are told here in Illinois. As you wait, you might be eating from your sprayed garden, sending your produce to a weekly Farmer’s Market, or selling your produce through your CSA. If you are organic you are selling produce supposedly with no pesticides on them. Not knowing the outcome of your pesticide drift incident is upsetting and draining on you and your family.

Here in Illinois we have found that in many cases “The Wait ” can easily stretch to 3 months and even to almost 5 months, before you hear if there is a violation of the Illinois Pesticide Act.

As organic farmer, Randy Hoovey from Geneseo, Ill., told me last fall, “We have an 8 ½ acre Certified Naturally Grown Organic farm with a couple thousand square feet of hoop house space and a grant from NRCS. We have 10,000 lettuce plants. We are still selling lettuce and don’t know what the result is from our complaint.” At that time, Randy was still waiting for the verdict after the incident where his farm, wife, and worker were spray drifted on May 18th by a local agriculture company, and again sprayed June 12th by a neighboring farmer. Later, Randy was verbally accosted by his neighbor while standing on his property’s edge. Randy had to call the sheriff. At this contentious encounter, Randy told the neighboring farmer who sprayed herbicide on the adjoining farm, “With the stuff you sprayed you have to have a 50-foot setback.” The neighboring farmer replied, “I DON’T HAVE TIME TO READ LABELS!”

It’s always good to know your neighbor is so conscientious and knowledgeable about following label directions while he sprays chemicals next to you!

Randy could tell he was going to need some legal back up on his pesticide complaints.  Lawyers in the area didn’t get back to him. His wife, Lee, began looking on the Internet for some kind of help. Not realizing what the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund was, she called the Fund’s President (Pete Kennedy) looking for a referral for an attorney. And that’s how the Hoovey’s connected with the Fund. For those of you who haven’t heard of them, the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to “defending the rights and broadening the freedom of family farms and protecting consumer access to raw milk and nutrient dense food.”

Randy says, “We would be lost without them. They are like angels.”

After the Fund approved the Hoovey’s case for representation, Gary Cox, General Counsel for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund stepped in to represent Randy’s family and farm. Meanwhile The Wait continued. And continued. And it became complicated…really complicated. After recently interviewing Randy Hoovey and Gary Cox, here is a time line of Randy’s pesticide incident:

1. Randy lodged a complaint for one overspray incident on May 18th and for a second overspray incident on June 12th, 2012.

The State Department of Agriculture investigated both complaints, separately, and issued two notices of Violation letters to two different entities: the herbicide spraying company for the first violation; and the neighboring farmer for the second violation.

2. The second violation letter was addressed to Mr. Hoovey’s neighbor. The neighbor sent a letter to the State challenging the violation. The Illinois Department of Agriculture rescinded the violation letter sent to the neighbor: “based on further information we are going to rescind our earlier violation letter to you.”

The chemical in question is Round-Up which is SUPPOSED to break down almost instantly, if you believe what Monsanto says about this chemical. We are left to wonder why the State would rescind its letter to the neighbor when almost a month later that chemical was still present from the first application. If the neighbor had not caused an overspray with the second application, why was the chemical still there?

3. Gary Cox through the Freedom of Information Act, obtained files from both incidents. Regarding the second incident, Gary spoke to one of the managers at Illinois Department of Agriculture, Environmental Programs, and asked him, “Why did you change your mind?” The manager replied, “Because we found out about the prior complaint. Based on that information we don’t think the neighboring farmer over-sprayed onto Hoovey’s property.” Even though, as Randy points out, “There is a positive test from the State of Illinois Department of Agriculture that was collected from our property right after the neighbor sprayed.”

4. In the meantime Gary Cox explains, “We settled with the sprayer on the first incident, and now we are trying to reach a settlement with the neighboring farmer. Although Randy and Gary do not talk in great detail about the specifics of the settlement, the insurance company for the local agriculture company “compensated the Hoovey’s for lost income and they agreed to not allow any of their operators to spray within 50 feet of the Hoovey’s property.”

Randy is presently pursuing a legal and financial settlement with the neighboring farmer.

Randy’s case may seem extreme but from what we have observed in Illinois, a 3-month wait is not all that uncommon.

I cannot sum up with a few words the anguish the Hoovey’s endured as they waited for the violation results from the State. The first incident on May 18th took until October 5th before the Hooveys received word that there was a pesticide violation by the spraying company. Nearly 5 months!

In the meantime, the Hoovey’s are selling their produce to their customers and wondering if the State lab would find it contaminated. Randy also wondered if they would lose their certification. (Their certification was downgraded to transitional and it will be another two years before they will be fully Certified Naturally Grown again.) Such was the state of Randy and his wife’s life throughout the entire summer.

Regarding The Wait for inspection results, the following reasons were given to Randy throughout the summer. On July 16th, when Randy called the State to ask when he might hear about the results of the tests on the samples taken from May and June, the manager of Environmental Affairs told Randy he’d look into it. Then another employee called back on August 6th stating, “It’ll be another week or so.”

After another week went by, Randy still heard nothing.  Randy received the same response from the State a month later. The State also told Randy: “I know they lost someone in the lab.”

If this were the only case like this, it could be discounted. However, many of the cases we hear about at Spray Drift Education Network have waited a good three months – the entire summer – as they sell what’s left of their produce, or try to save their grapes and grapevines, or as they realize the garden that sustains them through the winter may be non-touchable.

Other complainants calling Spray Drift Education Network have shared the explanations or excuses they received from the State. Here are some of them:

“Our machine is broken down.”

“We lost a chemist.”

“I’ll get back to you…I’m so busy now with complaints.”

“It’ll be another week or so.”

“The instrument that is used to analyze the samples was down and just got repaired.”

“We do not have the lab results yet.”

The State of Illinois plants approximately 12.1 million acres of corn and 9.4 million acres of soybeans a year. A huge percentage of these acres are sprayed with pesticides including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Could the State be better prepared for pesticide lab testing? How prepared is your state?

My purpose with this blog entry is to prepare you for what could happen if you have reported a pesticide incident. Hopefully, you will not experience the bumpy ride the Hoovey’s have had to endure.

It’s also important to note – even if the wait for a verdict is extremely long, or the enforcement agency comes up with a no violation you can still pursue legal action or a settlement with the sprayer’s insurance company, as Betty Gahm did. (How to Prepare For The Pesticide Spray Season: Part I). We’ll cover that in the next blog. Talk with your local lawyers, and definitely check out the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. For $125.00 a year, as a farmer (and $50 a year for a consumer), Randy explains, “You have access to their lawyers in an emergency 24/7. If you want to see how all this works, buy the video Farmageddon, watch it and show it to others. ”

What is it like in your state? Does your state have their inspector visit the suspected pesticide drift site in a timely manner? Are you happy with the process of waiting for results? Are you happy with the results of the inspection and the determination of pesticide finding (or not) by your state enforcement agency?

Stay tuned. We will examine “The Pesticide Complaint Result” in PART V of this series.

Please share your stories with us at Spray Drift Education Network. I welcome any comments you may have. You can also call Spray Drift Education Network at 815-988-2628. I look forward to hearing from you.

Photo by Fotolia/Africa Studio

The Pesticide Complaint Result PART 5

It’s grievous enough that you have a spray drift incident on your property, or worse yet, on yourself. But then, like Betty Gahm found out, even though you may be personally sprayed, the Department of Agriculture can find no spray drift violation.

What can a victim do (“complainant” to the Department of Agriculture), if he or she feels the enforcement agency’s “no violation” to the sprayer is incorrect? When I asked this question recently of Warren Goetsch, Illinois Department of Agriculture, Environmental Affairs, Bureau Chief, here was his answer:

“As far as you disagreeing with the Department’s finding under the Illinois Administrative Procedures Act, there is no recourse that I am aware of.” Mr. Goetsch added, although he was not an attorney and wasn’t giving legal advice, “You could file a civil action suit and pursue it on your own.”

Then Mr. Goetsch quickly added, “Oh, you can bring additional evidence to us…”

Mr. Goetsch must have been reading my mind, as I was just going to bring up the Randy Hoovey case (see Part IV: The Wait). If you’ll remember, Randy had two spray drift incidents in 2012 one month apart each spraying glyphosate (RoundUp). When the second sprayer – the farmer – was issued a violation from the Illinois Department of Agriculture, the farmer challenged it on the basis that Randy’s property had been sprayed about a month earlier with the same chemical. Therefore, to the farmer’s way of thinking, he had not over sprayed onto Randy’s property.

Hmmm, I wonder why this farmer came to that conclusion. Just because a different sprayer over-sprayed on a neighboring property before you did, doesn’t mean that your over-spray doesn’t count. But it must count, for the Department of Agriculture agreed with the farmer and rescinded the violation. The State rescinded the violation even though the newest samples taken by the State after the farmer sprayed showed Glyphosate on Randy’s property. (Remember…Monsanto says RoundUp dissipates extremely quickly.)

On the other side of this sprayer/complainant equation, I was not as fortunate with the State. When an inspector came to view my land after a spray drift incident in the mid-2000’s, he repeatedly told me that I had pesticide damage on my pear trees, which I could easily see. However, when the report came back, it said “No violation.” There was no evidence of pesticide damage on my trees. (I was not savvy enough at that time to insist the inspector take samples from my trees and soil.)

When I attempted to call the inspector, I was not permitted to talk with him. When I called the State to see what recourse I had to contest this, I was told I had no recourse at all with the State. (Had I only been a conventional, spraying farmer making that call!)

I have seen too many times where a victim becomes discouraged from making further complaints to the State when spray drift happens again. And some victims have had their properties spray drifted every year. The next time it happens, they don’t complain because “what good will it do?” as so many victims have told me.

Or, as a lady from Gibbonsburg, Ohio put it recently when she wanted to tell me of another spray drift incident (going on since 1986), “We have to deal with the Department of Agriculture here … the fox guarding the hen house.“

Just remember, if this happens to you, please get in touch with the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (see Part IV: The Wait). If you feel you need to, you can still pursue legal action and/or a settlement with the sprayer’s insurance company, even with a “no violation” from the State enforcement agency.

But not every case ends with a “no violation.” There are violations given by the enforcement agency and the victim can breathe a sigh of relief (no pun intended). The victim may think that is the end of over spray on his or her property because it would seem that the sprayer would not risk receiving another violation. That is, unless the farmer gets another company to spray (and drift) the next year, or a chemical spraying company uses a different person to apply the spray. As the law now stands in Illinois and many other states, ONLY the pilot or person spraying from a ground rig will receive the violation. Not the owner of the farm, not the actual company that hires the sprayer…just the actual sprayer. And this leads to farmers/owners/spray companies going on with “business as usual” even if it means you are going to get spray drifted again.

Even when there IS a violation given, others – like Mr. Smith of “The Great Grove Creek Crayfish Kill,” feel a violation isn’t strong enough. You’ve already heard from Mr. Smith in Part III: The Inspection. Let me finish my blog today quoting excerpts from Mr. Smith’s saga. (We will hear more from Mr. Smith next time when we discuss, “Part VI: How to Obtain Your Complete Case through the Freedom of Information Act.”

*****

So I settle in a waitin’ ta see what kinda action the IL. Dept. of Ag was gonna take in this open and shut case of, what should be highly criminalized, eco degradation…that chemical trespass into my space.

So with all that spraying activity, and after this failed attempt ta find my favorite bait, I set ta thinkin’ about other streams in the area. I’d like ta say that I changed streams and came up with plenty of bait, but I can’t. I crisscrossed the area fer five er six miles from here, me stopping at creek crossings, checkin’ under bridges and in first rock/riffle area…and…and you talk about disheartened, those son’s-of-bitchin’ aircrafts had done an amazing thorough job. I couldn’t help but feel eco-raped, and on a large scale.

So I wasn’t just layin’ back in the woods here, doin’ nothin’, just waitin’ fer the wheels of Department of Ag ta churn out its conclusive action in this case. No. I already knew, had been numerous times informed, how this thing most likely would go. And that’s just the way it did.

“Ha! A slap on the wrist!” Not my reaction but from those few I’ve shown this gem to. And it is a gem, too. I’m going to embrace and treasure it.

So the investigator did ascertain that a violation had indeed occurred. I made a mental note that I need to get my hands on this investigative report, knowin’ full well what a hassle it’ll be to go through “Freedom of Information” procedures. But I guess I’ll do it.

And I guess this letter places the blame for the eco destruction that happened here directly on a Mr. Stan Boling of Woodley Aerial Spray, Inc. All this stuff will be good info to hand over to my pro-bono legal team…just as soon as I get that little detail pulled together. I made a mental note ta go first and talk ta this guy, see if he’ll cooperate with me and give me information, like, just how much of this crap got dumped on this part of Ogle County durin’ that week-long blitz, so I don’t have to subpoena his records. Which I will do if I have ta.

And I guess I know where to vent my anger with respect ta this slap on the wrist. Certainly I’ll attempt conversation with Mr. Warren A. Goestsch, IL. Dept. of Ag Bureau chief, with respect ta this incident.

Boy! The questions that come ta mind with this dude. Like, fer starters, how many punches as opposed ta slaps does his agency merit out? Does anybody do serious jail time for doing serious eco damage? Do they have any sort of a baseline with respect to eco damage? Do they even take eco damage seriously? Like is this IL. Dept of Ag agency really lookin’ out fer the public’s interests, er is it just a toothless and tame pet of the Agro Chemical Industry?

And too, I’ve got great desire ta find out how this responsibility wasn’t in the hands of the E.P.A., how it got hijacked by the Department of Agriculture, which I’m sure is heavily influenced by the Agro Chemical Industry. The more I think about this stuff, what’s goin’ on all around us and all the time with almost no one completely aware of it er in control, I guess the more upset I get, the more goaded inta action I’m gettin’.

Which agency? I find myself questioning, Dept of Ag or E.P.A. has the say-so as to whether a chemical like this Tombstone is safe for usage and under what conditions? Under what circumstances is aerial sprayin’ safe at all? Damn…look at all the warnings of the products own promotional literature. Considering the impossibility to calculate all the movements, in some cases like micro movements of air currents below an aircraft that’s creating major turbulence either behind er below it…how do you keep sh_ _ like this Tombstone in place?

We’ll learn more about The Great Grove Creek Crayfish Kill (www.ecovig.blogspot.com) and how to order your complete pesticide complaint case from your state enforcement agency in my next blog.

If you have any questions or comments, I look forward to hearing from you any time. I am happy to report that more people are calling me from outside of Illinois, which really helps me to learn about the kind of practices in other states. I do my best to help each person who calls. There is much that can be done. More people telling their stories help immensely. You can reach me at 815-988-2628 or at www.spraydriftillinois.com.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please go to Spray Drift Education Network’s downloadable pamphlet on our website: www.SprayDriftIllinois.com. Even though your state may be somewhat different from Illinois, this website will help you become familiar with the process. Other helpful websites are: Pesticide Action Network and National Pesticide Information Center. I welcome any comments you may have. Please feel free to ask additional questions or relate your story. You can also call Spray Drift Education Network at 815-988-2628. I look forward to hearing from you.

Jane Heim, in 2011, co-founded Spray Drift Education Network (SDEN), a grass roots organization dedicated to helping Illinois citizens report and prevent pesticide drift. She
presently lives near Paw Paw, Ill., on 19 organic acres which she is transitioning to a Permaculture Restoration Farm.