Pesticide-reporting system in Oregon to begin in 2006

EUGENE, Ore. — A scaled-down version of Oregon's pesticide-use reporting program will start in January, after being stalled for years by opposition from agriculture and pesticide-industry interests.

State agriculture officials recently sent letters to farmers, government agencies and commercial pesticide users alerting them that they will need to keep records on the chemicals they use to control weeds, insects and other organisms.

The 1999 reporting law is designed to inform people about when, where and in what amounts pesticides are used.

Under a compromise worked out by the 2005 Legislature, $1.9 million will be provided to put the program into effect, but it will be less informative than environmentalists had wanted.

The pesticide industry and Republican lawmakers had argued that large, less-specific reporting areas were necessary to protect farmers and ranchers who use pesticides from being targeted for sabotage by radical environmentalists.