S.C. Code Regs. § § 27-1078

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 10, October 25, 2024

Section 27-1078 - Certification and Licensing of Commercial Applicators

A. No person younger than eighteen (18) years-old will be licensed as a commercial applicator.

B. Commercial applicators must demonstrate to the Director the financial responsibility required by law, before the Director may issue a license.

C. Continuous financial responsibility is an on-going responsibility of the commercial applicator, and no commercial applicator may receive, purchase, apply, use, supervise, or conduct other application-related activities without the required financial responsibility in place.

(1) Category 3, 5, and 8 applicators must maintain financial responsibility in the amount of $50,000 with an annual aggregate claims limit of not less than $100,000.00 before performing any pest control activities, including advertising, as specified in Section 27-1085 L, below.

(2) Category 7 applicators must maintain comprehensive general liability financial responsibility of not less than $100,000.00 combined single limit liability coverage, which must include both bodily injury and property damage coverage.

(3) Failure to maintain the requisite financial responsibility in any category shall cause the immediate and automatic suspension of the commercial applicator's license until such time as current financial responsibility is satisfactorily demonstrated to the Director. If the applicator fails to re-instate their financial responsibility within three months, or if their license expires sooner, the license is automatically revoked and must not be restored until the applicator has again completed the certification process, including the exams.

D. The insurance or surety company must be one licensed to do business in South Carolina, and must give at least ten days written notice by certified mail to the Department as a condition precedent to the cancellation by the surety or insurer, material change, or cancellation by the insured.

E. The above notwithstanding, commercial applicators are not relieved from liability for damages to persons or property caused by pesticides applied by or under the supervision of the licensee whether or not such use conforms to the requirements of the product label and the rules and regulations promulgated by the Director.

F. Financial Responsibility may be demonstrated by:

(1) A current public liability and property damage insurance policy and or certificate of insurance (issued by an insurance company). Binders are not acceptable.

(2) A certificate of self-insurance issued by the Workman's Compensation Commission. (Although this certificate is specifically designed to cover workman's compensation claims, the Department considers this certificate an indicator of sufficient assets to cover the liability requirements of the law).

G. All commercial applicators must provide a phone number where the commercial applicator can normally be reached during normal working hours. If this number changes, the Department must be notified within three (3) working days.

H. Persons holding a commercial applicator's license may use restricted use pesticides, but only for work in the specific categories in which the commercial applicator has demonstrated competence. Commercial applicator's licenses will be issued for the following categories of commercial pesticide-application operations:

(1) Agricultural Pest Control (Category 1).

(a) Plant (Category 1A).

(b) Animal (Category 1B).

(c) Stored Product Pest Control (Category 1C).

(d) Soil Fumigation (Category 1D).

(2) Forest Pest Control (Category 2).

(3) Ornamental and Turf Pest Control (Category 3).

(4) Seed treatment (Category 4).

(5) Aquatic Pest Control (Category 5).

(6) Right-of-way Pest Control (Category 6).

(7) Industrial, Institutional, Structural and Health-Related Pest Control (Category 7).

(a) General (Category 7A).

(b) Fumigation (Category 7B).

(8) Public Health Pest Control (Category 8).

(9) Regulatory Pest Control (Category 9).

(10) Demonstration and Research Pest Control (Category 10).

(11) Aerial Applicator (Category 11).

(12) Miscellaneous (Category 12).

(a) Wood Preservative Treatment (Category 12A).

(b) Anti-fouling paint (TBT) Application (Category 12B).

(c) Small Animal Pest Control (Category 12C).

(d) Sewer Line Pest Control (Category 12D).

(e) Limited Herbicide Application (Category 12E).

I. Commercial applicators must accomplish all of the following items below prior to being certified and licensed:

(1) Pass the Core examination, a basic test dealing with the minimum amount of subject matter considered essential to the safe use of restricted use pesticides.

(2) Pass a separate Category examination for each of the practice areas listed above. Note: passing the core exam without passing a category exam does not entitle the applicant to use or supervise the use of Restricted Use pesticides or perform pest control activities in categories for which licensing is required. Similarly, passing a category exam without passing the Core examination does not entitle the applicant to use or supervise the use of Restricted Use pesticides.

(3) Complete an application form published by the Department.

(4) Fees for the examinations, licensing, and for certification in additional categories beyond the initial category of certification shall be as prescribed.

J. Aerial Applicators.

(1) All aerial applicators of pesticides (including transient aircraft pilots) are subject to the same requirements outlined in Section 27-1077 F above. All aerial applicators must be certified and licensed by the Department before applying pesticides by air within the State.

(2) These regulations concerning aerial applicators do not in any way negate the regulations promulgated by the Aeronautics Division of the SC Department of Commerce or its successors.

(3) Aircraft must be secured against theft and tampering in a manner as prescribed by the Director after appropriate consultations with the affected parties or their representatives.

(4) Chemicals, use-dilutions, and their containers both on and off the aircraft must be secured in a manner as prescribed by the Director after appropriate consultations with the affected parties or their representatives.

K. Commercial applicator licenses shall expire on December 31st of each year.

L. Commercial applicator licenses are renewable annually by re-application to the Director prior to January 1st and payment of the prescribed annual fee. A 25% penalty will be charged for renewal applications filed after January 1st. Reexamination is not required for licenses renewed before April 1st as long as the recertification requirements of Section N, below, and continuous financial responsibility has been maintained as per Section 27-1078 C, above.

M. Commercial applicators holding valid licenses who desire to have a private applicators license may submit the proper application form and the prescribed fee to the Director. A private applicator license will be issued with no additional training required.

N. Recertification periods for commercial applicators are five (5) year periods, beginning January 1st of 1994 and ending on December 31st of 1998, 2003, 2008, and every five (5) years thereafter. During each recertification period after the one in which the license is issued each Commercial Applicator must accumulate no less than the number of Continuing Certification Units (CCUs) specified below for each category in which they are licensed, up to a maximum of 24 CCUs. Alternatively the applicator may complete the initial licensing requirements and re-apply to the Director for a license.

(1) All courses of study for which CCUs are requested must be submitted to the Department at least fifteen business days in advance of the date of the training. On-line, correspondence, or other self-study programs must be submitted for approval at least fifteen business days before being offered to participants. Submission of a program to the Department does not guarantee that it will receive CCUs.

(2) CCUs will be awarded as either category-specific or core-competency CCUs. Licensed applicators in categories in which licensing is mandatory must accumulate category-specific CCUs as indicated below before renewing their licenses. Licensed applicators holding certification in more than one category in which licensing is mandatory must accumulate the required number of category-specific CCUs for each mandatory category, up to a maximum of 24, as above.

(3) Once the required number of category-specific CCUs has been accumulated, either core-competency CCUs or additional category-specific CCUs may be used to fulfill the remaining CCU requirements.

(4) The Department will award CCUs based on its evaluation of the content of the course of study.

(5) Applicators certified in Category 7A must accumulate 20 CCUs in each recertification period, no less than 12 of which must be specific to Category 7A.

(6) Applicators certified in Category 7B must accumulate 10 CCUs in each recertification period, no less than 3 of which must be specific to Category 7B.

(7) Applicators certified in Category 3, 5, or 8 must accumulate 10 CCUs in each recertification period, no less than 3 of which must be specific to each category.

(8) Applicators certified in other categories must accumulate 10 CCUs in each recertification period.

(9) Applicators may obtain no more than one-half of the total number of required category-specific CCUs and no more than one-half of the core-competency CCUs during the last year of any recertification block. Applicators may "carry over" to the next recertification block any CCUs they obtain in excess of the minimum required, both category-specific and core-competency, during the final year of any recertification block.

O. The Department may at its discretion place a license into an inactive status at the request of the license holder for a period of not more than 5 years. During the inactive period the license holder is relieved of the requirement to show financial responsibility.

(1) Holders of inactive licenses must meet the recertification requirements set forth above, and must renew their licenses annually.

(2) No pesticide use or other activities regulated by this Section may be conducted or supervised using an inactive license.

P. Limited Herbicide Application (Category 12 E).

(1) Treatment of turf and ornamental plantings with a herbicide containing glyphosate as the sole active ingredient with "Caution" as the signal word, when performed as part of terrestrial landscape weed control for compensation on the property of another, requires only a Category 12E Limited Herbicide Application license provided that applications are performed using portable backpack and hand-held compressed-air sprayers, each of which is of no more than 5 gallons total capacity per applicator per site.

(2) Category 12E Limited Herbicide Application license holders may not use any other herbicides, rodenticides, miticides, fumigants, nematicides, insecticides, fungicides, Restricted Use Pesticides, any products with a "Warning" or "Danger" signal word, or products with restrictive label language, except under the direct supervision of a Category 3 or other appropriate license holder. The presence of any rodenticides, miticides, fumigants, nematicides, insecticides, fungicides, Restricted Use Pesticides, any products with a "Warning" or "Danger" signal word, or products with restrictive label language as detailed in Section 27-1075 D above, on a vehicle or in application equipment under the control of a Category 12E Limited Herbicide Application licensee is also a violation of this Section.

(3) Applicators certified in Category 12E Limited Herbicide Application must accumulate 5 Continuing Certification Units in each five-year recertification block.

(4) Persons holding only a Category 12E Limited Herbicide Application certified commercial applicator license may provide direct supervision, in accordance with Section 27-1083 D, to unlicensed applicators, but only for applications of herbicides containing glyphosate as the sole active ingredient with "Caution" as the signal word.

(5) Applicators seeking certification in Category 12E Limited Herbicide Application are required to pass a 50 question examination, designed for this specific area of pest control.

(6) All other regulations in this Chapter apply to Category 12E Limited Herbicide Application license except that, where more stringent regulations regarding the certification examination and recertification occur in this Chapter, this Section shall take precedence for those certified in the Category 12E Limited Herbicide Application license.

S.C. Code Regs. § 27-1078

Amended by State Register Volume 18, Issue No. 6, eff June 24, 1994; State Register Volume 29, Issue No. 6, eff June 24, 2005; State Register Volume 35, Issue No. 5, eff May 27, 2011; State Register Volume 38, Issue No. 4, eff April 25, 2014; State Register Volume 48, Issue No. 06, eff. 6/28/2024.