WENATCHEE WORLD November 3, 2005 Girl sickened by spray drift speaks out for tougher rules: 48-hour notice 'onerous' for growers, fruit expert says By Rick Steigmeyer, World staff writer WENATCHEE - Washington State Department of Agriculture officials had already turned off their tape recorder and were ready to call the hearing to an end when Elena Dominguez stood up and said she wanted to testify. The 16-year-old Wenatchee High School junior, a late-arriver to a short Wednesday afternoon hearing on a proposed state pesticide rule, stated her name clearly into the microphone and then gave a brief account of how she had twice collapsed at Foothills Middle School as a sixth-grader. It was in the spring of 2001. Each time she was rushed to Central Washington Hospital's emergency room. Doctors there, including her own father, Dr. John Dominguez, an internal specialist at the hospital, couldn't determine a cause. The Department of Health later determined Elena had suffered pesticide poisoning from an orchard next to the school playground. Elena testified that she supported any rule that would help prevent students from being exposed to pesticides at school. The hearings at Wenatchee Valley College gathered comments, including Elena's, on a proposal to require pesticide applicators to give 48-hour notice before spraying some pesticides. The notification would go to schools, hospitals, nursing homes and licensed day care centers that share a boundary with the property where the pesticides will be applied. Ann Wick, WSDA pesticide program manager, said there have been six complaints in five years about pesticide spray drift on school or other property that would be covered by the proposed amendment. "There's been very few complaints. But there are several groups who want to get this rule on the books," she said. Those in support of the rule included farmworker advocate groups. Vernon Smith, owner of The Learning Curve child development center in Wenatchee, spoke in favor of the proposed rule. Smith was the only other person besides Elena Dominguez to testify among about 10 people at a 3 p.m. hearing. "I think it would be a great proactive tool to know when the orchard was going to be sprayed," said Smith, whose day care center at 1717 Maiden Lane sits next to a cherry orchard. He said the orchard owner has never contacted him before he has applied pesticides. He said children get sick all the time, but neither he nor any parent have ever attributed it to pesticide drift. "But how do I know?," he said in an interview after his testimony. "I don't have an issue with agriculture. We're integrated with farm land. But we have to pay attention to the chemicals. It makes sense that we at least have a warning so we can pull the kids inside." Kirk Mayer, manager of the Washington Growers Clearing House Association in Wenatchee, was at the 3 p.m. hearing but did not testify. The Clearing House represents about 2,100 fruit growers in the state. Mayer said after the meeting he planned to submit a written comment opposed to the rule change. "We see it as an overreaction," he said. "There are other ways to facilitate communication between growers and these groups without this onerous notification system." The rule would create logistical problems for farmers, who don't always know two days in advance of when they need to apply a pesticide, he said. One group supportive of the proposed rule is the Farm Worker Pesticide Project. Carol Dansereau, executive director of the Seattle-based group, was at the hearing and also said she planned to submit written comment later. Both Dansereau and Mayer served on an advisory committee that helped the WSDA draft the proposed rule. Dansereau said the rule doesn't go far enough. She'd like to see additional notification requirements that would help protect farmworkers, neighbors and others that could be exposed to pesticides. "This rule is a step forward, but not a substitute for the Department of Agriculture doing their job to protect people from spray drift," she said.