News

Pesticide Use Reporting System Suspended

Probably the one bill of the 2009 Legislative Session of greatest interest to the agricultural/chemical industry was House Bill 2999, dealing with the state’s mandatory Pesticide Use Reporting System (PURS). As approved, HB 2999 extends the sunset of the PURS program until June 30, 2019; however, due to state budget constraints, the Oregon Dept. of Agriculture is prohibited from expending any money or resources for the operation of PURS until June 30, 2011. This effectively suspends the Pesticide Use Reporting System until January 2013, at the earliest.

It is important to remember that federal and state requirements to keep records of pesticide use are independent and those record keeping requirements remain in place even while PURS is unavailable.

Other changes to PURS contained in HB 2999 will apply to pesticide applications on or after January 1, 2013. These include changing the reporting of location to fourth level hydrologic units and allowing for the reporting of utility or transportation right-of-way applications by name and the beginning and ending point of global positioning system coordinates or milepost numbers.