Oregon’s Pesticide Use Reporting System Started January 2007
By Sunny Jones, Oregon Department of Agriculture
The Pesticide Use Reporting System (PURS) passed by the 1999 Oregon Legislature (Chapter 1059, Oregon Laws 1999) requires all users to report pesticide use online. The term “pesticide” is often misunderstood to refer only to insecticides but it also applies to herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides and various other substances used to control pests. Defined in statute, a pesticide user is “any person who uses or applies a pesticide in the course of business or any other for-profit enterprise, or for a government entity, or in a location intended for public uses or access.” This covers the agriculture and forestry industries, government agencies, utility companies, pest control companies, and landlords and managers of rental property, motels, hotels, restaurants, stores, etc.
One common question is what qualifies as a farm? In determining if you are required to report pesticide applications made on your farm, ODA is using the USDA definition of a farm: any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products (crops and livestock) were sold or normally would have been sold during the year under consideration.
Another common question is are organic products pesticides and do I have to report them? The answer may be yes! There are a number of EPA registered products allowed for use in organic production; such as, boric acid, lime sulfur, horticultural oils, coppers and insecticidal soaps, to name a few. The basic answer is if a pesticide product has an EPA registration number on the product label and it is not an antimicrobial, then that pesticide product needs to be reported into PURS.
ODA has developed a Web site for users to submit their pesticide use information. In order to fulfi ll the confidentiality requirements of SB 290, ODA separated the system into two databases. One database retains reporter’s demographic information while the other database contains pesticide use reports. The PURS databases have been available since January 2007 to receive reports of pesticide use in 2007. Any pesticide use prior to 2007 does not need to be reported to PURS.
Worksheets posted on the PURS Web site clearly identify the required information. Additionally, in order to better serve users, PURS Help classes have been scheduled in various locations around the state. At the PURS Help classes, ODA staff will be on-hand to provide one-on-one assistance in registering and filing one or two reports online. Users need to bring their application records with them to take advantage of these classes.
PURS is to be a comprehensive, statewide system. With that in mind, an additional component is households. A specially designed Household Pesticide Use Survey, including a phone survey and three month “use diary,” is being utilized to obtain information from over 250 new households each quarter across the entire state. This survey is designed to be representative of household use throughout Oregon rather than just large metro areas. Because this component did not require the web system, data for 2006 was collected and will be available in the 2006 Annual Report. The Household Use Survey is on-going through 2007.
If you have questions or need additional information, visit the PURS Web site here or call the PURS
Information Line at 503-986-6472 to speak with staff working in the PURS system.
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