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Yakama Land Enterprise Settles on Pesticide Violations

Release Date: 6/20/2005
Contact Information: Lyn Frandsen
[email protected]
(206) 553-4768

June 20 2005


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has settled an administrative complaint with Yakama Land Enterprise for a final penalty of $5,664. Land Enterprise and EPA have also agreed to work together to develop a compliance plan to help Land Enterprise reduce pesticide drift, and comply with Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide ACT (FIFRA) and Worker Protection Standards.

"We are pleased with the settlement," said Mike Bussell, Director of the EPA’s Regional Compliance and Enforcement Office. "We look forward to working with Land Enterprise to insure proper use of pesticides on the Reservation."

Yakama Land Enterprise (YLE) is located on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Toppenish, Washington, and is a tribally owned and operated land purchasing and development enterprise on behalf of the Yakama Nation.

The list of violations alleged in the complaint included:

Applying the pesticide Assail in May 2004, allowing it to drift onto a nearby organic cherry orchard. Applying the pesticide Guthion Solupak in June 2004, allowing it to drift onto a Pacific Power and Light employee who was reading electrical meters on nearby properties, and failing to post warning signs about the pesticide application. Applying the pesticide Assail in August 2004 and failing to provide workers with information about the pesticide, failed to notify workers of the address and phone number of the nearest medical facility and failed to assure that the pesticide workers and handlers were properly trained.

The EPA has primary enforcement responsibility over federal pesticide laws on Indian Reservations. Elsewhere in the state, the primary responsibility lies with the Washington Department of Agriculture.

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Related Links:

Press Release: Three Companies Penalized for Pesticide Violations on Yakama Reservation
Region 10 Pesticides Program (yosemite.epa.gov/R10/ECOCOMM.NSF/webpage/Pesticides)
Region 10 Compliance and Enforcement (yosemite.epa.gov/R10/ENFORCE.NSF/)

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