About 50 demonstrators from throughout Northern California braved temperatures approaching 110 degrees on Friday — carrying signs and wearing shirts that read “Exact Location” and “Stop Pesticide Secrecy,” and chanting “Si Se Puede” (“yes, it can be done”) — in an effort to gain more transparency regarding the state’s pesticide policies.
After a 30-minute demonstration outside the Carnegie Arts Center, the action moved inside the building where the California Department of Pesticide Regulation held one of two scheduled in-person public hearings about its pesticide notification system.

“Spray Days California” is a proposed pesticide notification system that aims to provide public access to information prior to the application of high-risk pesticides, as opposed to after spraying.

However, protesters want the state to go even further and provide the exact location of spray locations. Many farmers and county agriculture commissioners are opposed to releasing the exact location, citing privacy concerns. Instead, notification within one square mile of an intended application site is proposed.

The state calls the new regulations a “first-of-its-kind system to provide advance information” on pesticide use, and that the DPR “will be required to provide information 48 hours prior to the intended start of a soil fumigation and 24 hours prior to the intended start of all other restricted material applications requiring a permit.”

After a 20-minute presentation by the DPR, the meeting was opened to public comments. About 80 spectators packed the McVey Loft on the third floor of the Carnegie, and nearly 50 people strode to the podium to speak. The majority called for exact-location concessions by the state.

“As we’re all aware, recently we went through COVID,” said Mechelle Perea-Ryan, a nurse practitioner in Stanislaus County. “And by knowing exactly who you were exposed to, you’d know what your risk was. If somebody came and told you that somebody in the building had COVID, that’s not going to help you know whether you were exposed. But if you knew that it was in the same room you were in, within that five-foot exposure, you’d know you were at high-risk.”

Roger Isom, with the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association, as well as the Western Agricultural Processors Association, thinks more dialogue needs to happen about the overall process.

“There’s concern that people are being exposed to pesticides when they spray them,” said Isom. “The fact of the matter is … no way in the world would DPR or any ag commissioner in this room ever allow pesticides to be sprayed that would affect a farmworker or resident or innocent bystander. It just wouldn’t happen.”

The hearing was designed to garner public feedback on the initiative, though DPR representatives at the meeting were not permitted to answer audience questions. Another hearing will be held via Zoom on July 15 (join the meeting at https://bit.ly/3VVCKqg), with the final in-person meeting being held July 23 in Shafter, 455 E. Euclid, Ave.

Both meetings begin at 6 p.m.

Comments can be emailed to dpr23003@cdpr.ca.gov and must be received by 5 p.m. on Aug. 1.