The Oregon Department of Agriculture issued 52 civil penalties in 2017 amounting to $327,153 as a result of violations committed in ODA’s Pesticide, Fertilizer, and Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) programs. The civil penalties are a result of inspections and investigations performed by staff in those three programs. Combined, the programs conducted 1,566 inspections and investigations in 2017. The 52 civil penalties represent about 3 percent of all inspections and investigations conducted last year. ODA’s progressive compliance actions emphasize identifying and correcting problems, often working with the licensed or permitted businesses and individuals. However, regulatory tools include issuance of civil penalties for the most serious cases. In 2017, ODA’s Pesticide Program licensed more than 10,000 businesses and individuals, completed 557 investigations of potential pesticide violations, and issued 24 final orders on civil penalties totaling $55,033 over the course of the year. That compares to 37 final orders on civil penalties the previous year and represents about 4 percent of the total investigations conducted in 2017. Violations included making false or misleading claims to the effect of pesticides; faulty, careless, or negligent pesticide application activities; making false, misleading, or fraudulent records; unlicensed or inappropriately licensed operators or applicators; formulating, delivering, distributing, selling, or offering for sale adulterated pesticides; and, marketing or distributing broken or adulterated containers of pesticide products.
