A proposal sought by pesticide-spraying crop dusters that opponents say will leave people susceptible to getting hit with poison from above received significant pushback with a Senate committee vote on Thursday.
The legislation follows an incident last year where about 20 farmworkers in southwestern Idaho said they became sick after a crop duster sprayed pesticide on a field right next to them.
The original legislation sponsored in the House by Republican Rep. Judy Boyle easily passed last month despite concerns it mostly gutted regulations intended to prevent crop dusters from harming people on the ground.
Among the biggest concerns was removing language from the law that held crop dusters responsible for the "careless" application of pesticides. That is being returned in the proposed amended version of the bill.
The Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee on Thursday added that back. It now goes to the full Senate for consideration. Republican Sen. Jim Guthrie, the committee chairman, guaranteed the changes would become part of the final bill.
Irene Ruiz, a former farmworker who now works for the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils, read a letter from one of those workers who was sprayed by pesticides last year that described a trip to the emergency room.
"We are human and honorable people," Ruiz told the committee.
John Cooper, president of crop-dusting company in southern Idaho, said what he wanted most was a clear set of regulations.
He said his crop-dusting planes cost $1.7 million each and can generate about $50,000 a day. He said a suspension of his license for a vague violation would be a significant expense.
"We're all human," he told the committee. "The last thing we want to do is spray a farmworker."
Besides putting farmworkers at risk, opponents said, residents living near agricultural areas in fast-growing areas of the state would also be in harm's way under the original legislation.
The proposed amendments brought forward on the Senate side appeared to have addressed those concerns.
"I think it has led to a really good compromise that is going to work for everyone," said Democratic Sen. Maryanne Jordan.
An opinion by the state attorney general's office said taking out "careless" leaves a much more difficult standard of negligence.
"The purpose of this is not to degrade the Department of Agriculture's ability to regulate, but it is so set forth a statute for our applicators to look to when it comes to violations," said David Lehman, a lobbyist for the Idaho Agricultural Aviation Association.
The current legislation mandates that the state engage in meetings with the industry and others to come up with new regulations.
"I think there is going to be a lot of folks engaged in that rulemaking," Jonathan Oppenheimer of the Idaho Conservation League said after the meeting.
The legislation also applies to ground applicators of pesticides. There are some 10,000 in Idaho. About 90 are aerial applicators.
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