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Help & SupportChapter 6-10: Pesticide Use27
(a) It is the intent of the city council in enacting this chapter to prescribe requirements concerning pesticides in order to preserve the health, safety, and welfare of the inhabitants of the city. The council finds that there are federal and state laws that regulate pesticides, but that those laws do not exclude local government regulation not inconsistent therewith. The council finds that this chapter is not inconsistent with federal and state laws, and is not preempted by any such laws. The city council finds that the provisions of this chapter address the city's local and municipal concerns of storage, disposal, spill, water and sewer system, landlord-tenant, employee notification, trespass, and nuisance concerns not addressed by federal and state law.
(b) The city council finds that the unique wind conditions in the city cause drift to occur during airborne applications of pesticides and that absent pre-application notification, airborne applications of pesticides constitute a nuisance. It is the intent of the city council in enacting this chapter to prescribe requirements concerning the notification of the public of the outdoor use of pesticides. The city council finds that this objective is not inconsistent with federal and state laws, and is not preempted by any such laws. The city council further finds that notification of outdoor pesticide use is a matter of local and municipal concern.
(Ordinance No. 5266 (1990))
(a) As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates that a different meaning is intended:
"Airborne application" means the application of pesticides by misting or spraying plant materials greater than five feet in height, or by use of a fogger.
"Anti-siphon device" means any device that prevents pesticides from flowing back into the city's water system.
"Commercial applicator" means a person which owns or manages any business activity in which pesticides are applied upon the lands of another for hire or which receives, directly or indirectly, any compensation for such activity. This definition does not include maintenance personnel hired by commercial establishments, if such personnel have a variety of maintenance duties.
"Commercial property" means property owned or leased by a business, industry, church, school, or government on which goods or services are provided to the public.
"Contracting party" means a person which hires a commercial applicator or other person to apply pesticides.
"Defoliant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to cause leaves or foliage to drop from a plant, with or without causing abscission.
"Desiccant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to accelerate artificially the drying of plant tissues.
"FIFRA" means the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, 7 U.S.C. section 136 et seq., as amended.
"Fogger" means a piece of equipment that breaks some pesticides into very fine droplets (aerosols or smokes) and blows or drifts the fog onto the target area.
"Mist blower" means spray equipment in which hydraulic atomization of the liquid at the nozzle is aided by an air blast past the source of spray.
"Misting" means the production of a cloud-like mass or layer of minute globules of pesticide in the air through use of a mist blower or similar device.
"Pest" means any insect, snail, slug, rodent, nematode, fungus, weed, or any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life or virus, bacterium, or other microorganism which is declared by the Colorado State Department of Agriculture to be a pest or which is considered a pest under FIFRA, except those on or in the human body or on or in other living animals.
"Pesticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended for destroying or repelling any pest. This includes, without limitation, fungicides, insecticides, nematocides, herbicides, and rodenticides and any substance or mixture of sub-stances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant. The following products are not pesticides:
(1) Deodorizers, bleaching agents, disinfectants, and cleaning agents for which no pesticidal claims are made in the sale, or distribution thereof; and
(2) Fertilizers and plant nutrients.
"Pesticide Act" means the Colorado Pesticide Act, section 35-9-101 et seq., C.R.S., as amended.
"Pesticide Applicators' Act" means the Colorado Pesticide Applicator's Act, 35-10-101 et seq., C.R.S., as amended.
"Pesticide regulations" means 40 C.F.R. section 162 et seq., and 8 C.C.R. section 1203-2.
"Plant regulator" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to accelerate or retard, through physiological action, the rate of growth or maturation or otherwise to alter the behavior of plants or their produce, but does not include a plant nutrient, trace element, nutritional chemical, plant inoculant, or soil amendment.
"Spill" means the introduction of any pesticide into the environment in a manner other than that prescribed by the label.
"Spray" means a mixture of a pesticide with water or other liquid applied in fine droplets.
"User of pesticides" means any person which applies or causes the emission of a pesticide into the environment, whether by spraying, misting, fogging, dusting, dragging, or other means. Users of pesticides include, without limitation, commercial applicators, contracting parties, property owners, and governmental entities.
(b) Words defined in chapter 1-2, "Definitions," B.R.C. 1981, have the meanings there expressed if not differently defined by this chapter.
6-10-3 Licensing of Commercial Applicators.
No commercial applicator shall engage in the use or application of pesticides without a valid current state license as required by the Pesticide Applicators' Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
6-10-4 Maintenance of Records.
(a) Each commercial applicator shall maintain a record of information concerning each pesticide application. The record shall be consistent with state record keeping requirements, as set forth in section 35-10-111, C.R.S., as amended.
(b) Immediately following any pesticide application, each commercial applicator shall provide a full copy of the record set forth in subsection (a) of this section to the contracting party.
(Ordinance No. 5266 (1990))
No user of pesticides which spills a pesticide or applies a pesticide in violation of any state or city law or regulation shall fail to report such event to the city manager immediately. In addition, no such person shall fail to notify all property owners and tenants who are or may be directly affected by the spill or improper application by making an immediate reasonable attempt at personal or written notification of all such property owners and tenants.
(Ordinance No. 5266 (1990))
6-10-6 Storage, Disposal, and Use.
(a) No person shall transport, store, dispose of, or use any pesticide or pesticide container in such a manner as to cause injury to human beings, vegetation, crops, livestock, wildlife, or other animals or so as to contaminate any surface water or groundwater.
(b) No person shall fail to comply with the safety precautions recommended by the manufacturer of the pesticides in using, storing, or disposing of a pesticide container.
(c) No person shall use city water to fill any tank or for any other purpose except for application in accordance with subsection (d) of this section, without keeping a six-inch space between any connection to the city water supply and any pesticide.
(d) No person shall fail to use an anti-siphon device for any pesticide application method which connects to the city water system.
(e) No person shall flush, dump, or dispose of any pesticide into any city sanitary sewer, storm sewer, ditch, lake, or any other area that may flow into such a sewer, ditch, or lake. No person shall fail to dispose of pesticides pursuant to any applicable state statutes and regulations.
(Ordinance No. 5266 (1990))
6-10-7 Notification to Tenants and Employees of Indoor Application.
(a) Unless all affected tenants agree that an emergency exists and consent in writing to a shorter period, no property owner or contracting party shall fail to provide written notification to tenants not less than forty-eight hours and not more than seven days before the application of a pesticide to rental residential property owned by such property owner or contracted for by such contracting party or any common area associated with such property. Such notice may be accomplished by mail, by personal delivery, by doorknob hangers or by putting notices under doors. Such notice shall contain, at a minimum, the proposed date and time when the application is to occur, the dwelling or rooming unit number where the application is to occur, the pesticide to be used, and the names and telephone numbers of the property owner or manager and the applicator. All tenants of each dwelling unit in which pesticides are to be applied must be given written notice. For applications to common areas, it is sufficient to post a notice at a common point of entry to that area.
(b) Except for manufacturing businesses regulated under the Occupational Safety and Health Hazard Communication Standard, 29 C.F.R. section 1910, as amended, in SIC codes 20-39, no employer or contracting party which causes pesticides to be applied shall fail to provide reasonable notification of such application sufficient to allow an opportunity to avoid exposure to all persons having their principal place of employment at a work site prior to any pesticide application to any part of the work site where such employee would, upon reasonable inquiry, be expected to work within twenty-four hours following the pesticide application.
(c) Subsections (a) and (b) of this section apply only to indoor applications of pesticides.
(Ordinance No. 5358 (1991))28
(a) For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this chapter, the city manager or the manager's designee may enter upon any public or private land in a reasonable and lawful manner during reasonable business hours for the purposes of inspection and observation.
(b) If denied access to any land or building, the city manager may apply to the municipal court for a search warrant or other appropriate court order.
6-10-9 Federal and State Statutes and Regulations.
Repealed.
The city manager or the manager's designee may suspend any portion of this chapter in the event of an emergency situation which threatens irreparable harm to the health, safety or welfare of the inhabitants of the city or to the city's environment.
6-10-11 Pre-Application Notification of Airborne Application.
(a) Prior to airborne application of any pesticide, no contracting party or other user of pesticides, shall fail to give notice to all occupants of all adjacent properties. For purposes of this section, properties located diagonally from the affected property and touching only on a property corner or other point shall be considered to be adjacent, and rights-of-way shall be disregarded in such determinations.
(b) The notice shall be given at least twenty-four hours prior to application.
(c) The notice shall be valid for seven days after it is given.
(d) The notice may be given by posting signs on the property to be treated or by giving verbal or written notice.
(e) The notice shall contain at a minimum the following information:
(1) Date notice given;
(2) Indication that pesticides will be applied and the approximate date of application;
(3) The name and telephone number of the contracting party or other user of pesticides; and
(4) Date notice expires.
(f) If notice is given by posting signs on the property to be treated, such signs shall conform to the following criteria:
(1) There shall be a minimum of one water-resistant sign along the principal street frontage of the property.
(2) Signs shall be placed so that the warning is conspicuous from the public right-of-way. All required information shall be on one face of the sign.
(3) For property surrounding commercial buildings or attached dwelling units, signs shall be posted at common access points.
(4) For city park or open space property, signs shall be posted at each trailhead, street access, or sidewalk entry point, and any additional common access points.
(5) Signs shall be a minimum of one foot by one foot in area, and a maximum of two square feet in area per face.
(6) Signs shall be placed at a maximum height of six feet.
(7) There shall be no greater size of letters for identification of the applicator than for any other information on the sign.
(8) Signs shall be dark lettering on a bright yellow background.
(g) If a commercial property or an attached (i.e., multi-family) residential dwelling is located adjacent to property on which an airborne application of any pesticide is to occur as set forth above, no contracting party or other user of pesticides shall fail to make a reasonable attempt to notify the owner or manager of the property at least forty-eight hours prior to the pesticide application. Upon receipt of such notice, such owner or manager shall not fail to post in a prominent place the information that the adjacent property will be treated.
(Ordinance No. 5358 (1991))
6-10-12 Post-Application Notification of Outdoor Application.
(a) No contracting party or other user of pesticides which applies pesticides outdoors shall fail to display at least one warning sign for at least twenty-four hours following each pesticide application, or longer if suggested or required by the manufacturer's label. All signs shall be posted at the time of the pesticide application.
(b) Signs shall conform to the following criteria:
(1) Signs shall include the following statement:
"WARNING, PESTICIDES APPLIED.
Name: Phone: .
Remove sign after 24 hours, or per label requirements."
(2) The name and telephone number shall be either the contracting party or other user of pesticides.
(3) Signs shall be at a mini-mum of four inches by five inches in area per face, and a maximum of two square feet in area per face.
(c) Signs shall comply with all other criteria set forth in subsection 6-10-11(f), B.R.C. 1981, except subparagraph 6-10-11(f)(5), B.R.C. 1981.
(Ordinance Nos. 5358 (1991); 5393 (1991))
No notice of outdoor application is required pursuant to section 6-10-12, "Post-Application Notification of Outdoor Application," B.R.C. 1981, under the following circumstances:
(a) Individual spraying of weeds if the spraying distance is less than three feet; and
(b) Spot treatment of areas that are less than a total area of one hundred square feet on a lot.
6-10-14 Post-Application Notification of Lake Application.
(a) In addition to the notice required pursuant to section 6-10-11, "Pre-Application Notification of Airborne Application," B.R.C. 1981, no contracting party or other user of pesticides which applies pesticides to a lake or other open body of water shall fail to post the shoreline of that body of water with a warning sign. Such signs shall be placed every three hundred feet for the period of time during which the manufacturer's label warns against reentering the lake or using its water, but under no circumstances shall such time be less than twenty-four hours.
(b) Signs shall include at a minimum the following information:
(1) The statement:
"THIS LAKE TREATED WITH PESTICIDES. STAY OUT.
Name: Phone: .
Remove sign after 24 hours, or per label requirements."
(2) The name and telephone number shall be either the contracting party or other user of pesticides.
(3) Signs shall be a minimum of four inches by five inches in area per face, and a maximum of two square feet in area per face.
(c) Signs shall comply with all other criteria set forth in subsection 6-10-11(f), B.R.C. 1981, except subparagraph 6-10-11(f)(5), B.R.C. 1981.
(d) The requirements of this section shall not apply to commercial applicators, unless they voluntarily assume such duty on behalf of the contracting party.
27 Adopted by Ordinance No. 5083. Amended by Ordinance Nos. 5084, 5129, 5187. Readopted by Ordinance No. 5250.
28 Ordinance No. 5358, effective 1-15-1991.