Wash. Rev. Code § 17.21.020

Current through the 2024 Regular Session

Section 17.21.020 - Definitions

The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) "Agricultural commodity" means any plant or part of a plant, or animal, or animal product, produced by a person (including farmers, ranchers, vineyardists, plant propagators, Christmas tree growers, aquaculturists, floriculturists, orchardists, foresters, or other comparable persons) primarily for sale, consumption, propagation, or other use by people or animals.

(2) "Agricultural land" means land on which an agricultural commodity is produced or land that is in a government-recognized conservation reserve program. This definition does not apply to private gardens where agricultural commodities are produced for personal consumption.

(3) "Antimicrobial pesticide" means a pesticide that is used for the control of microbial pests, including but not limited to viruses, bacteria, algae, and protozoa, and is intended for use as a disinfectant or sanitizer.

(4) "Apparatus" means any type of ground, water, or aerial equipment, device, or contrivance using motorized, mechanical, or pressurized power and used to apply pesticides that are mounted, attached to, pulled, or carried on any vehicle, trailer, aircraft, vessel, or all-terrain vehicle designed primarily for transportation and movement, but does not include a device that is handheld, carried by the applicator, or placed in position for a sedentary timed or metered application.

(5) "Arthropod" means any invertebrate animal that belongs to the phylum arthropoda, which in addition to insects, includes allied classes whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs; for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and isopod crustaceans.

(6) "Certified applicator" means any individual who is licensed as a commercial pesticide applicator, commercial pesticide operator, public operator, private-commercial applicator, demonstration and research applicator, private applicator, limited private applicator, rancher private applicator, or any other individual who is certified by the director to use or supervise the use of any pesticide which is classified by the EPA or the director as a restricted use pesticide.

(7) "Commercial pesticide applicator" means any person who engages in the business of applying pesticides to the land of another.

(8) "Commercial pesticide operator" means any employee of a commercial pesticide applicator who uses or supervises the use of any pesticide and who is required to be licensed under provisions of this chapter.

(9) "Defoliant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to cause the leaves or foliage to drop from a plant with or without causing abscission.

(10) "Department" means the Washington state department of agriculture.

(11) "Desiccant" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to artificially accelerate the drying of plant tissues.

(12) "Device" means any instrument or contrivance intended to trap, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate pests, but not including equipment used for the application of pesticides when sold separately from the pesticides.

(13) "Direct supervision" by certified private applicators shall mean that the designated restricted use pesticide shall be applied for purposes of producing any agricultural commodity on land owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer, by a competent person acting under the instructions and control of a certified private applicator who is immediately available, even though such certified private applicator is not physically present at the time and place the pesticide is applied. The certified private applicator shall have direct management responsibility and familiarity of the pesticide, manner of application, pest, and land to which the pesticide is being applied. Direct supervision by all other certified applicators means direct on-the-job supervision and shall require that the certified applicator be physically present at the application site and that the person making the application be in voice and visual contact with the certified applicator at all times during the application. However, direct supervision for forest application does not require constant voice and visual contact when general use pesticides are applied using nonapparatus type equipment, the certified applicator is physically present and readily available in the immediate application area, and the certified applicator directly observes pesticide mixing and batching. Direct supervision of an aerial apparatus means the pilot of the aircraft must be appropriately certified.

(14) "Director" means the director of the department or a duly authorized representative.

(15) "Engage in business" means any application of pesticides by any person upon lands or crops of another.

(16) "EPA" means the United States environmental protection agency.

(17) "EPA restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide classified for restricted use by the administrator, EPA.

(18) "FIFRA" means the federal insecticide, fungicide and rodenticide act as amended (61 Stat. 163, 7 U.S.C. Sec. 136 et seq.).

(19) "Forest application" means the application of pesticides to agricultural land used to grow trees for the commercial production of wood or wood fiber for products such as dimensional lumber, shakes, plywood, poles, posts, pilings, particle board, hardboard, oriented strand board, pulp, paper, cardboard, or other similar products.

(20) "Fumigant" means any pesticide product or combination of products that is a vapor or gas or forms a vapor or gas on application and whose method of pesticidal action is through the gaseous state.

(21) "Fungi" means all nonchlorophyll-bearing thallophytes (all nonchlorophyll-bearing plants of lower order than mosses and liverworts); for example, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, and yeasts, except those on or in a living person or other animals.

(22) "Fungicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any fungi.

(23) "Herbicide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any weed or other higher plant.

(24) "Immediate service call" means a landscape application to satisfy an emergency customer request for service, or a treatment to control a pest to landscape plants.

(25) "Insect" means any small invertebrate animal, in any life stage, whose adult form is segmented and which generally belongs to the class insecta, comprised of six-legged, usually winged forms, as, for example, beetles, bugs, bees, and flies. The term insect shall also apply to other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless and usually have more than six legs, for example, spiders, mites, ticks, centipedes, and isopod crustaceans.

(26) "Insecticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any insect.

(27) "Land" means all land and water areas, including airspace and all plants, animals, structures, buildings, devices, and contrivances, appurtenant to or situated on, fixed or mobile, including any used for transportation.

(28) "Landscape application" means an application of any EPA registered pesticide to any exterior landscape area around residential property, commercial properties such as apartments or shopping centers, parks, golf courses, schools including nursery schools and licensed day cares, or cemeteries or similar areas. This definition shall not apply to:

(a) Applications made by private applicators, limited private applicators, or rancher private applicators;

(b) mosquito abatement, gypsy moth eradication, or similar wide-area pest control programs sponsored by governmental entities; and

(c) commercial pesticide applicators making structural applications.

(29) "Limited private applicator" means a certified applicator who uses or is in direct supervision, as defined for private applicators in this section, of the use of any herbicide classified by the EPA or the director as a restricted use pesticide, for the sole purpose of controlling weeds on nonproduction agricultural land owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer. Limited private applicators may also use restricted use pesticides on timber areas, excluding aquatic sites, to control weeds designated for mandatory control under chapters 17.04, 17.06, and 17.10 RCW and state and local regulations adopted under chapters 17.04, 17.06, and 17.10 RCW. A limited private applicator may apply restricted use herbicides to the types of land described in this subsection of another person if applied without compensation other than trading of personal services between the applicator and the other person. This license is only valid when making applications in counties of Washington located east of the crest of the Cascade mountains.

(30) "Limited production agricultural land" means land used to grow hay and grain crops that are consumed by the livestock on the farm where produced. No more than ten percent of the hay and grain crops grown on limited production agricultural land may be sold each crop year. Limited production agricultural land does not include aquatic sites.

(31) "Mishap" means an event that adversely affects humans or the environment and that is related to the use or presence of a pesticide whether the event was unexpected or unintentional.

(32) "Nematocide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate nematodes.

(33) "Nematode" means any invertebrate animal of the phylum nemathelminthes and class nematoda, that is, unsegmented round worms with elongated, fusiform, or saclike bodies covered with cuticle, and inhabiting soil, water, plants or plant parts. Nematodes may also be called nemas or eelworms.

(34) "Noncertified applicator" means an individual who is not licensed by the director in accordance with this chapter to use or supervise the use of any pesticide that is classified by EPA or the director as a restricted use pesticide in the classification appropriate to the type of application being conducted.

(35) "Nonproduction agricultural land" means pastures, rangeland, fencerows, and areas around farm buildings but not aquatic sites.

(36) "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, or organized group of persons whether or not incorporated.

(37) "Pest" means, but is not limited to, any insect, rodent, nematode, snail, slug, weed, and any form of plant or animal life or virus, except virus, bacteria, or other microorganisms on or in a living person or other animal or in or on processed food or beverages or pharmaceuticals, which is normally considered to be a pest, or which the director may declare to be a pest.

(38) "Pesticide" means, but is not limited to:

(a) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, control, repel, or mitigate any pest;

(b) Any substance or mixture of substances intended to be used as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant; and

(c) Any spray adjuvant as defined in RCW 15.58.030.

(39) "Plant regulator" means any substance or mixture of substances intended through physiological action, to accelerate or retard the rate of growth or maturation, or to otherwise alter the behavior of ornamental or crop plants or their produce, but shall not include substances insofar as they are intended to be used as plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants, or soil amendments.

(40) "Private applicator" means a certified applicator who uses or is in direct supervision of the use of any pesticide classified by the EPA or the director as a restricted use pesticide, for the purposes of producing any agricultural commodity and for any associated noncrop application on land owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer or if applied without compensation other than trading of personal services between producers of agricultural commodities on the land of another person.

(41) "Private-commercial applicator" means a certified applicator who uses or supervises the use of any pesticide classified by the EPA or the director as a restricted use pesticide for purposes other than the production of any agricultural commodity on lands owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer.

(42) "Rancher private applicator" means a certified applicator who uses or is in direct supervision, as defined for private applicators in this section, of the use of any herbicide or any rodenticide classified by the EPA or the director as a restricted use pesticide for the purpose of controlling weeds and pest animals on nonproduction agricultural land and limited production agricultural land owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer. Rancher private applicators may also use restricted use pesticides on timber areas, excluding aquatic sites, to control weeds designated for mandatory control under chapters 17.04, 17.06, and 17.10 RCW and state and local regulations adopted under chapters 17.04, 17.06, and 17.10 RCW. A rancher private applicator may apply restricted use herbicides and rodenticides to the types of land described in this subsection of another person if applied without compensation other than trading of personal services between the applicator and the other person. This license is only valid when making applications in counties of Washington located east of the crest of the Cascade mountains.

(43) "Residential property" includes property less than one acre in size zoned as residential by a city, town, or county, but does not include property zoned as agricultural or agricultural homesites.

(44) "Restricted use pesticide" means any pesticide or device which, when used as directed or in accordance with a widespread and commonly recognized practice, the director determines, subsequent to a hearing, requires additional restrictions for that use to prevent unreasonable adverse effects on the environment including people, lands, beneficial insects, animals, crops, and wildlife, other than pests.

(45) "Rodenticide" means any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate rodents, or any other vertebrate animal which the director may declare by rule to be a pest.

(46) "School facility" means any facility used for licensed day care center purposes or for the purposes of a public kindergarten or public elementary or secondary school. School facility includes the buildings or structures, playgrounds, landscape areas, athletic fields, school vehicles, or any other area of school property.

(47) "Snails or slugs" include all harmful mollusks.

(48) "Unreasonable adverse effects on the environment" means any unreasonable risk to people or the environment taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide, or as otherwise determined by the director.

(49) "Use" as in "to use a pesticide," means:

(a) Whenever the "restricted use pesticide" designation statement appears on a pesticide label, "use" means any of the following:

(i) Preapplication activities involving mixing and loading the pesticide;

(ii) Applying the pesticide including, but not limited to, supervising the use of a pesticide by a noncertified applicator; and

(iii) Other pesticide-related activities including, but not limited to, transporting or storing pesticide containers that have been opened, cleaning equipment, and disposing of excess pesticides, spray mix, equipment wash waters, pesticide containers, and other pesticide-containing materials.

(b) Whenever the "restricted use pesticide" designation statement does not appear on a pesticide label, "use" means any of the following:

(i) Preapplication activities involving mixing and loading the pesticide;

(ii) Applying the pesticide including, but not limited to, supervising the use of a pesticide by a noncertified applicator; and

(iii) Other activities required by the label instructions.

(50) "Use-specific instruction" means the information and requirements specific to a particular pesticide product or worksite that an applicator needs in order to use the pesticide in accordance with applicable requirements and without causing unreasonable adverse effects.

(51) "Weed" means any plant which grows where it is not wanted.

RCW 17.21.020

Amended by 2023 c 186,§ 1, eff. 7/23/2023.

Amended by 2010SP1 c 7,§ 134, eff. 6/30/2010.

2004 c 100 § 1; 2002 c 122 § 2; (2002 c 122 § 1 expired July 1, 2002); 2001 c 333 § 1; 1994 c 283 § 1; 1992 c 176 § 1; 1989 c 380 § 33; 1979 c 92 § 1; 1971 ex.s. c 191 § 1; 1967 c 177 § 2; 1961 c 249 § 2.

Reviser's note: The definitions in this section have been alphabetized pursuant to RCW 1.08.015(2)(k).

Effective date-2010 1st sp.s. c 26; 2010 1st sp.s. c 7: See note following RCW 43.03.027.

Effective date-2004 c 100: "This act takes effect January 1, 2005." [ 2004 c 100 s 7.]

Effective dates-2002 c 122: "(1) Section 1 of this act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately [March 26, 2002].

(2) Section 2 of this act takes effect July 1, 2002." [ 2002 c 122 s 3.]

Expiration date-2002 c 122 s 1: "Section 1 of this act expires July 1, 2002." [ 2002 c 122 s 4.]

Effective date-2001 c 333: "Except for *section 7 of this act, this act takes effect July 1, 2002." [ 2001 c 333 s 6.]

*Reviser's note: Section 7 of this act was vetoed.