CORRECTION

A front-page story Saturday gave incorrect dates for the suspension of Edward Owens' pesticide applicator license. Owens' license will be suspended from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31.

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Violators of North Carolina's pesticide laws have sprayed homes, cars and waterways with toxic chemicals. They have endangered human health, killed animals and fish, and left containers coated with poisonous residue lying beside busy roads.

A review of state pesticide enforcement records shows that violators rarely pay more than a few hundred dollars for their illegal acts. Some violators pay small fines over and over, and continue applying pesticides with the state's blessing -- even when they have illegally sprayed cars and homes with toxic chemicals.

Now, the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees pesticide enforcement, is wrangling with Florida-based tomato grower Ag-Mart over its punishment for 369 violations of pesticide law. The company is accused of exposing hundreds of workers to a host of poisonous chemicals, and state health officials are investigating whether those pesticides caused severe birth defects in some workers' babies.

With the case under scrutiny from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the media, Agriculture officials are asking for a record $184,500 fine. Department records show that, even if Ag-Mart pays only a small fraction of that, the case would be an aberration for an enforcement system that uses a light hand to regulate the use of dangerous chemicals.

The department oversees about 35,000 pesticide applicators in North Carolina. The most the state has collected in fines in any of the past five years is $34,500.

Eighty-five percent of the 172 fines issued since the beginning of 2002 were less than $1,000. Nine licenses to apply pesticides were briefly suspended during that time.

"We are doing everything we can," said Jim Burnette, head of the Agriculture Department's pesticide section. "Can you ever stop it all? No, I don't think you can."

Burnette's section investigates all pesticide violations and negotiates settlements. Nineteen inspectors do more than 10,000 routine inspections a year. They also investigate a few hundred each a year. Burnette said that's all they can do with a budget that has been cut 20 percent since 2000. Less than 3 percent of inspections reveal problems, the section's 2005 records show. When violations are found, most are handled with a warning that carries no penalty. Less than one-half of 1 percent of inspections result in a fine.

How board operates

The Pesticide Board, whose members are appointed by the governor, approves every sanction. The board includes employees of several state agencies, farm and pesticide industry representatives and at-large members.

The board has taken the attitude that big fines hurt small farmers -- though it also regulates large companies that run farms, sell chemicals or apply pesticides for pay.

"We don't need Big Brother there looking over every operation," said Scott Whitford, a farmer from Grantsboro in Pamlico County, chairman of the board. "With farmers, the profit margin is small, and they can't stand a lot of fines." Whitford said farmers follow the law because they don't want to damage their land or waste expensive chemicals.

Until recently, in cases that could not be settled without a hearing, the board refused to fine farmers more than $500 -- no matter how many laws were broken. The board said that was all the law allowed.

"We had some cases where people got $300 and $400 fines, and they did damage to the environment and put people's health at risk and everything else," said Benson Kirkman, a Raleigh conservationist who has been on the board for 10 years.

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