The Environmental Protection Agency has restored and revised Obama-era regulations requiring a buffer zone where people cannot be present during pesticide applications.
The Application Exclusion Zone (AEZ) “immediately surrounds the pesticide application equipment during an outdoor pesticide application,” EPA said Wednesday. It exists only during the application, “moves with the equipment during application, and can extend outside of an agricultural establishment” to areas including residential neighborhoods and school grounds.
The AEZ was included in a 2015 rule that the Trump administration tried to replace in 2020 with regulations limiting all AEZ protections to ag operations and shrinking the zone to 25 feet for some ground-based applications.
“These changes would have meant that applicators no longer had to suspend applications if people in the AEZ were outside of an agricultural establishment, such as a neighboring property or in an easement,” EPA said.
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The Trump EPA’s attempt to change the AEZ was met with a court challenge that resulted in a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the 2020 rule. “As a result, the 2020 AEZ Rule has not gone into effect, and the AEZ provisions in the 2015 WPS remain in effect,” EPA said Wednesday.
The new rule, as it was proposed last year, includes a 100-foot zone for ground-based applications consisting of fine droplets, and 25 feet for applications “with medium or larger droplets when sprayed from a height greater than 12 inches from the soil surface or planting medium.”
The rule also includes an exemption for family members. That is, farm owners and their immediate family can stay inside enclosed structures or homes during pesticide application. The exemption gives those farming families “flexibility to decide whether to stay on-site during pesticide applications, rather than compelling them to leave even when they feel safe remaining in their own homes.”
EPA also clarified that applications can resume only after people leave the AEZ.
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