New York PCOs Wary Of Neighbor Notification Law Campaigns
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New York PCOs Wary Of Neighbor Notification Law Campaigns
Date:
Wed, 22 Jan 2003 11:46:28 -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
New York PCOs Wary Of
Neighbor Notification Law Campaigns
By Brad Harbison
1/20/2003
URL:
http://www.pctonline.com/news/news.asp?ID=1583/
NEW YORK - PCOs in New York are keeping close tabs on efforts by environmental lobbyists to enact pesticide neighbor notification laws that affect the green industry.
Six New York counties - Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, Westchester, Tompkins and Albany - have passed neighbor notification laws for outdoor pesticide spraying. Environmental lobbyists were encouraging Monroe, Dutchess and Ulster counties to adopt similar laws, at press time.
PCOs - even those who use perimeter applications as part of their treatment programs - have not been affected by these laws, according to Ron Meringolo, executive director of the New York State Pest Management Alliance. In New York, licensed PCOs do not have to notify neighbors if they apply pesticides within a 3-foot barrier of a structure's perimeter.
Meringolo has had discussions with New York Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), who serves as Chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, to discourage the state from enacting a neighbor notification requirement for structural pest control.
"From my most recent conversations with Senator Marcellino they are not going after structural (pest control) yet," Meringolo said. "At one point he (Marcellino) said the structural side has enough going against it in terms of other laws."
Still, Meringolo said many New York PCOs are monitoring the green industry situation closely and have expressed concerns that the pest control industry is next on the environmentalist lobby "hit list."
"Usually what happens is that (environmental lobbyists) hit on one thing that works (in the green industry) and then they go after structural," Meringolo said. "Any type of neighbor notification law for structural would be costly. That's when you are going to see a lot of companies bought out or going out of business."
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