Inspectors crack down on landscape businesses
Subject: Inspectors crack down on businesses
Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 17:28:29 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
DELAND -- Many landscape professionals have been spraying pesticides and herbicides on their customers' shrubs and flower beds for years, not realizing a 1991 state law requires them to have a license to use those chemicals.
Now, state inspectors have begun stricter enforcement of the law, said Bob Kessler, owner of Bullseye Environmental Services in Coral Gables and a state-approved instructor on pesticide use.
"Probably only 20 percent of the lawn maintenance
people in the state of
State law requires landscapers to have a limited commercial lawn maintenance license if they intend to use chemicals, he said. Even with the license, they face restrictions: they can't spray pesticides or herbicides onto turf, they cannot use power sprayers, and they can use only products bearing a caution label on their containers.
Kessler said lawn-care workers who only mow and trim -- as well as homeowners using over-the-counter chemicals on their own yards -- don't need to get the license. Only pest control companies may spray grass and turf, and they operate under a different kind of license, he added.
Kessler, a member of the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators, recently conducted a one-day class on pesticide and herbicide use for landscapers and lawn-maintenance professionals. The class, sponsored by the Volusia County Extension Service, drew a larger-than-expected crowd of about 60.
"A lot of people aren't aware they need a limited pesticide license to spray on landscaped beds," said Dana Venrick, the county's commercial horticulture extension agent. "There are a lot of lawn maintenance companies out there who have been routinely spraying, unaware of the state laws requiring a license."
Jack Gordon, owner of Grounds Management Services in New Smyrna Beach, said he didn't know he needed a license until he received a flier announcing the course. In the process of getting certified, Gordon said he learned a lot.
"It's amazing the little things you think you know, but you don't," he said. "For instance, I thought a mask was required when using Roundup, but it isn't."
Robert Portugais, owner of B&R Enterprises in
"They're now enforcing the state law," Portugais said. "I don't have a license yet, but I will at the end of the class."
The law does have one loophole that less scrupulous landscapers have tried to exploit, Kessler said.
"An unlicensed landscaper can apply pesticides if the homeowner supplies the product and the application equipment," he said. "The yard-man exemption applies only in residential uses, not in commercial jobs."
Some landscapers use their own equipment to apply pesticides, claiming they "lease" the gear to customers during the job. Inspectors have been unswayed by that argument, Kessler said.
West Pest Control owner Tim Keefe said his 26-year-old Deltona company has all the required state licenses, including one for using pesticides and herbicides on lawns. Keefe believes a crackdown on illegal sprayers is overdue.
"It's probably the most noncompliant area," he said.
Scott Mickens runs the company's lawn department, Keefe said.
"We try to customize our lawn spraying services, and take our time to do each yard right," he said.
Steve Rutz, director of the Ag Department's Division of Agriculture and Environmental Services, which oversees the Bureau of Entomology and Pesticide Control, said courses such as Kessler's are helpful when preparing for state certification.
"The exams for licensure are pretty tough," Rutz said. You have to understand the regulations and laws regarding pesticides, and you have to be able to identify different plants and pests."
Unlicensed lawn pest-control is "one of our biggest enforcement challenges," he said. Not just anyone can get into the business.
"One thing that trips companies up is the requirement
to have experience with a licensed company before becoming certified," Rutz
said. "You need three years' experience, at least one year of which has to
have been in
Kessler said state inspectors are issuing fines and desist orders to the illegal sprayers of pesticides or herbicides.
"Typically, they follow a lawn-maintenance truck until it stops at a house," he said. "Then they inspect the truck and see if there's any product on the truck."
The fine for illegally using chemicals can be up to $5,000 per offense, Kessler said. The $200 for the course and test is a bargain by comparison, and shouldn't result in higher costs to the consumer.
"The added expense is relatively low, but most consumers want people on their property to be properly educated," he said.
Landscapers actually can profit from certification by offering pesticide services for beds, shrubs and ornamentals, he said.
Despite the increasing number of lawn-care companies doing
business in
Susan Counts at the Ag Department's Division of Consumer Services said in 2001, only six complaints were filed about lawn-maintenance companies or contracts, out of nearly 40,000 complaints handled by the agency. The previous year, only two of the more than 38,000 complaints pertained to lawn-care companies or contracts.
Even so, bad things can happen, which is why Venrick
brought the course to
Source url: http://www.news-journalonline.com/2002/Mar/10/REALEST1.htm
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