By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—The Otter Creek Watershed Insect Control District (OCWICD or the District) held a special meeting on Wednesday, October 25 to discuss its response to the imposition by the state of penalties totaling $9,125.
In a letter dated October 4, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, & Markets (the Agency) notified the District that the Agency believed the District had violated the Vermont Rule for Control of Pesticides (the Rule) in two separate incidents that occurred in June in Leicester and in September in Brandon.
OCWICD is a “union municipal district” that provides insect control to the towns of Brandon, Leicester, Salisbury, Pittsford, Goshen, and Proctor but is independent of these towns’ governments. It has its own Board of Trustees composed of representatives appointed by the Selectboards of the participating towns. The District receives its operating budget from the taxpayers of these towns as well as from grants and donations.
The District’s stated mission is “to control nuisance mosquito and biting fly populations in member towns.” It achieves this goal through the application of chemical insecticides that are sprayed from a truck that drives along designated routes in each participating town. Residents along these routes can opt out of the program if they wish that their properties not be sprayed.
In the October 4 letter, the Agency alleged that on June 20, 2023, the District violated the Rule when Doug Perkins, who was driving the spray truck and who is the current chairman of the District’s Board, sprayed pesticides on the property of Elise and Doug Haydon of Leicester even though the Haydons’ property was posted as a “No Spray Zone.” The Agency further alleged that when the Haydons confronted Mr. Perkins about the spraying, Mr. Perkins negligently sprayed them directly with pesticide when he attempted to demonstrate the sound made by the truck’s pump as opposed to the sprayer.
The Haydons subsequently lodged a formal complaint against the District with the Agency, which resulted in the Agency sending an inspector, Specialist Clark Parmalee, to investigate the claims. Mr. Parmalee met with other members of the District staff and examined the District’s equipment. The letter stated that Parmalee was able to determine that even if the sprayer was turned off, the pump could still spray residual insecticide left in the lines. Mr. Parmalee was also able to obtain records from the District that showed that a neighboring property to the Haydons had been sprayed on June 20, indicating that the spray truck was on the Haydons’ street that day.
The Agency seeks to impose penalties totaling $7,500 for the incident in Leicester.
The letter also alleged that on September 6, 2023, the District misused an insecticide called PermaSease 3-15 along two routes in Brandon. The specific allegation is that the truck used to spray the insecticide was not equipped with a flow meter to ensure that the proper amount of insecticide was released from the truck. The letter went on to state that Specialist Parmalee inspected the trucks used by the District in Brandon on September 6, 2023 and did not observe any equipment on either vehicle that would allow measurement of the amount of pesticide in the tanks.
The Agency seeks to impose a penalty of $1,625 for the incident in Brandon.
The District called the special meeting of its Board of Trustees to decide its response to the Agency’s letter. The members of the Board agreed to request a hearing with the Agency to explain the District’s opposition to the penalties and to dispute the allegations in the letter. The Board declined to specify the exact reasons for its disputation of the Agency’s claims, stating only that there was a difference in interpretation of the events.
Board member Bradley Lawes of Brandon stated that he’d been through this process with the “multiple times” (unrelated to the District) and that a discussion with the state often resulted in a reduction or suspension of proposed penalties. If the state pursued the penalties regardless, the District should appeal the decision and retain counsel at that point, Mr. Lawes continued.
Dr. Ben Lawton of Brandon, who’s been on the Board since 1990, said that he couldn’t recall any similar situations in his history with the District. This statement ran counter to an assertion by former Board member Wayne Rausenberger that the District had received similar fines in the past but never paid them.
The Board stated that payment of the full set of penalties ($9,125) would reduce the District’s cash reserves by half and greatly impair its ability to carry out its work.
