New panel to study pesticide law

....will evaluate a controversial law that requires landscapers to warn neighbors before spraying pesticides on nearby lawns.

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New panel to study pesticide law

By JANE LERNER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: April 26, 2001)

A new committee appointed by County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef will evaluate a controversial law that requires landscapers to warn neighbors before spraying pesticides on nearby lawns.

Initial plans call for the new group to be composed of members from county departments and agencies, two industry groups and Cornell Cooperative Extension, a county contract agency, according to a statement released by Vanderhoef yesterday.

Recommendations from the Pest Management Committee will not be binding but will help the county decide if Rockland should sign on to the state's Neighbor Notification Law.

"We are trying to get more information about this to determine what the county should do," Vanderhoef said yesterday.

Reaction to the plan for a new committee was mixed.

"It's a great first step," said George Potanovic, founder of Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment, or SPACE. "But what's missing is representation from environmental groups."

The county executive planned on including the Rockland Environmental Management Council in the new committee, said his spokeswoman Susan Cerra.

The county funds the Environmental Management Council and its volunteer members are appointed by Vanderhoef.

Vanderhoef later said that he would ask a member of the Rockland County Conservation Association, an independent organization, to join the new group. He will also consider appointing residents who belong to local environmental groups.

"We will not set up a rubber-stamp committee to give me a pre-formed answer," he said. "We want numerous sides of the issue explored."

Vanderhoef said that he will not limit the committee to people or groups with ties to county government.

"We want people to be open-minded," he said.

A subcommittee of the Rockland Legislature in March dropped plans for a public hearing on the Neighbor Notification law in the face of opposition from local landscapers.

The law was passed by the state, but counties have the option of signing on to it. So far Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk and Albany counties have done so.

It was recently nullified in Nassau after a judge ruled in favor of Nature's Trees, a Westchester-based pest control company with an office in Nassau. The company complained that Nassau implemented the law before undertaking an environmental review.

Landscapers and the pesticide industry vehemently oppose the regulation.

Representatives from more than 20 local companies told the Rockland Legislature's Multi Services Committee that the state law was unnecessary, environmentally unsound and could put landscapers and pesticide applicators out of work.

After hearing their objections, the committee headed by Legislator Harriet Cornell, D-West Nyack, pulled the public hearing from the agenda.

Cornell said at the time that the county would wait until after next summer to see how the law works in Westchester before considering a public hearing.

But she said yesterday that the issue could come up again for a public hearing as early as next month.

"After talking to council, what happens in Westchester didn't seem relevant," Cornell said.

Cornell said that the Multi Services Committee would research the law and share information with the new group proposed by Vanderhoef, a Republican.

Legislator Kenneth Zebrowski, D-New City, an early supporter of the Neighbor Notification Law, said that any study group needs to include input from the public.

"There are many individuals in Rockland concerned with the environment and pesticide use," he said.

The Pest Management Committee will also review the pest management methods used on county-owned land, Vanderhoef said.

The group will be led by R. Allan Beers, coordinator of the county Department of Environmental Resources.

The group will form over the next three weeks and hopes to start its study soon after, Beers said.

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