AUGUSTA
(AP) - Testimony drifted into the realm of bedbugs, cockroaches and
ants Monday as a legislative committee took up a bill to enlarge the
state's Board of Pesticides Control, a proposal that has put
applicators at odds with environmentalists.
The
bill before the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
seeks to add two members to the seven-member pesticides board, which
already has two experts in agriculture and forestry pesticides. The new
members would include an expert in structural pest management and a
business representative.
The
bill's supporters said it's time to modernize the board by improving
its members' expertise in the changing field. They also see the board,
in its present structure, as tilted against pesticide applicators.
"The
current Board of Pesticides Control ... is neither balanced nor fair,"
said the sponsor, Sen. Nancy Sullivan, D-Biddeford, who was joined by
the Maine Merchants Association and businesses that provide services to
tens of thousands of Maine businesses and homeowners.
Among their opponents are organic farmers and the Toxics Action Center.
Sharon
Tisher, who teaches environmental law at the University of Maine, told
the committee that the bill is little more than a "pre-emptive strike"
by the pesticides industry to weaken controls on pest-fighting products
as the board deliberates new rules on indoor applications.
Tisher
said she could go along with the legislation if the regulatory panel
were renamed "Board of Pesticide Permissiveness," adding that if it
passes Maine should change its motto from "I lead" to "We fall behind."
Opponents
said pesticides board meetings are regularly well-represented by
businesses involved in controlling vermin such as tiny bedbugs, which
are showing up in schools, hospitals, movie theaters and health clubs
in some states and forcing exterminators to take them more seriously.
Pest
managers told lawmakers about the importance of having a say on
regulations as they face challenges getting rid of German cockroaches,
carpenter ants and other kinds of crawling things in an increasingly
litigious environment.
Also
before the committee Monday was a bill to require the Board of
Pesticides Control to undertake a risk assessment for all pesticides
used in the state.
Meanwhile,
some environmental groups are calling for new rules that would restrict
some pesticide applications and expand public oversight opportunities.
The
Toxics Action Center and Environment Maine last week submitted
petitions to change the rules to ban aerial application of pesticides,
prohibit the use of organophosphates, one of the most toxic classes of
pesticides, and to waive $20 fees that Maine residents must pay to be
on a registry of where and when pesticides are applied in their
communities.
The pesticides board could adopt the rules without legislative action.
