How VOCs came to the forefront

As with other environmental issues, there are several often confusing, and sometimes conflicting, regulatory and judicial circumstances placing increased emphasis on the reduction of VOCs from pesticides.

The San Joaquin Valley is currently operating under a 1994 State Implementation Plan developed by the California Air Resources Board to bring the region into compliance with federal clean air standards for ozone. That State Implementation Plan, or SIP, required a 12-percent reduction in pesticide VOCs by 1999 in the San Joaquin Valley. Unfortunately, Ludwig said, the basis for how those baseline VOC levels were calculated changed in the process and DPR found itself out of compliance with the requirements of the SIP in the last 2 years.

Lawsuits ensued and in April 2006, a federal judge agreed that California violated the Clean Air Act. The judge ruled the state Department of Pesticide Regulation must reduce VOC emissions from fumigants and other pesticides by 20 percent of 1991 levels by Jan. 1, 2008.

"The lawsuit says DPR did not implement mandatory regulations to reduce VOC emissions from pesticides once DPR realized they were not in compliance with the 1994 SIP," Ludwig said.

Although DPR has appealed the judge's order, the agency shortly after announced its initiative to achieve state air quality goals by 2008.

At the same time, states are now under mandate to meet new, more stringent ozone standards established by EPA in 2002. The California ARB must now submit a new, even more ambitious, State Implementation Plan by June 2007 for each air district in the state. Most of the Central Valley does not meet the new ozone standard, with the San Joaquin Valley being the furthest out of compliance.

That means pressure to reduce VOC emissions from pesticides is likely to intensify further.