Crop Spray Rules Sought

In March 2000, spectators at a Rio Mesa High School track meet in Oxnard were appalled to see toxic fungicides being sprayed over neighboring strawberry fields as young runners struggled for their personal best.

Eight months later, parents dropping off their children at Mound Elementary School in Ventura were horrified by a fog of pesticide drifting over from an adjacent lemon grove. The incident sickened dozens of students and triggered prosecution of the grove’s owner.

On Thursday, an unusual coalition of growers, environmental activists and educators unveiled a set of guidelines aimed at averting such incidents. The risk is constant, the Ag Futures Alliance said. Twenty-nine county schools, the alliance said, are within 300 feet of farms, and restrictive new laws make it tough for farmers to sell their land to developers.

At a news conference attended by two county supervisors and representatives of several school districts, members of the alliance praised their two-year search for consensus among competing factions.

“This is a reason for Ventura County agriculture not only to have unqualified support from the community but to deserve it,” said Doug Adrianson, an alliance member and a former Times editor.

Mary Haffner, an anti-pesticide activist whose children attended Mound, was less effusive.

“I’m glad to see people so willing to come to the table and talk, but I don’t want anyone to think everything is hunky-dory,” she said. “Now we have guidelines with respect to when pesticide applications can take place, but I don’t think the committee will recommend reducing pesticide use. It’s heavily packed in favor of the industry.”

The group, which includes an organic farmer and a representative of the Environmental Defense Center, has called for such common-sense measures as principals updating growers on students’ schedules and growers spraying only when schools are not in session. On Thursday, the group distributed recommendations that are being distributed to growers and schools.

The recommendations urge school officials to meet with nearby farmers, learn which pesticides are planned for use in the coming year and establish emergency plans for accidental exposure. Meanwhile, growers are urged to consider using less toxic substances in the areas nearest schools and give school officials written notice of pesticide use at least two days in advance.

County Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail said such procedures have been the norm for a number of growers, but that the alliance’s work has formalized them.

McPhail said agreement from diverse interests on such significant recommendations is unprecedented in Ventura County.

In a report, the alliance also recommended that the county provide more money for response to pesticide emergencies and look into buying “pesticide use rights” from farmers in sensitive areas.

The alliance did not address construction of new schools on or near farmland--an issue so contentious that it sparked a three-year battle in Oxnard, where the elementary school district ultimately withdrew its plans.