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The board's practice changed after Robin Smith, an assistant secretary at the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, joined the board and said she had never seen the law interpreted that way in any other regulatory agency.

Since mid-2004, the board's policy has been to fine up to $500 for each violation, not each case.

Since that change, fines have increased slightly.

In 2005, 14 percent of fines were $1,000 or more, compared with 9 percent in 2003.

A sampling of the board's cases from the past few years illustrates how violators are punished:

* Edward Owens, a Raeford pilot who owns a crop-dusting business, has been found guilty of five violations since 1998, according to records supplied this week by the Agriculture Department. News reports show he has other violations and suspensions that date from the 1980s.

Twice in the past eight years he was accused of spraying people's cars while they drove. At least once, the victim suffered serious health problems. In each case, the board fined Owens between $500 and $1,800 and allowed him to continue spraying. On a more recent occasion, in 2005, his license was suspended three months.

* In 2001, several Nash County residents complained of burning eyes, noses and throats, and county emergency officials announced a voluntary evacuation from the neighborhood. Inspectors found that an employee of one of the state's largest farming companies, Dale Bone Farms, sprayed toxic chemicals too close to wells and houses. The farm settled for $500.

* In 2004, after a Robeson County man complained of pesticide exposure, investigators found that a crop duster had sprayed too close to the man's house and to a road. The pilot settled for $500.

* The biggest settlement in the past few years was $2,700. In that case, settled in February 2005, a Florida company maintaining billboards on Interstate 95 sent unlicensed pesticide applicators to spray weeds. They damaged trees in a public right of way, carried pesticides in unlabeled containers and left empty containers beside the road.

A victim's perspective

Judilyn Knight, a former mail carrier from Fayetteville, has seen the state's enforcement in action.

In 2002, Knight was driving her route in rural Hoke County when Owens' crop duster flew overhead. Her windows were down, and she said she was soaked with foul-smelling liquid.

At once, her skin itched, her throat swelled, she felt confused and sick, Knight said. Within the next few weeks, Knight said, her symptoms worsened. Doctors didn't know what to do.

Knight, 43, said she now has a permanent brain injury from the pesticide exposure. She can no longer work or drive. She spends many of her days in bed.

Kaye Kilburn, a Los Angeles doctor who studies the effects of chemicals on the brain, examined Knight. He said having seen similar effects in other patients, pesticide exposure is the only explanation for Knight's problems.

Knight's husband, who retired before she got sick, returned to work as a trucker to make up for her lost salary. Their 18-year-old daughter watched her mother deteriorate. "It has just basically destroyed my life," Knight said.

State pesticide inspectors found that Owens sprayed a cocktail of three pesticides over the highway Knight was traveling. At the time, Owens was already a repeat violator with several violations over two decades. He settled the state's investigation of the Knight case in 2003 for $1,500. Knight is now suing Owens in state court.

Since the incident with Knight, Owens has paid settlements to the state in two more cases.

In September 2004, he was accused of dousing a couple's car as they drove. He settled for $1,800. And in October 2004, he was accused of allowing pesticides to drift onto a house. He paid a $1,200 fine and had his license suspended for three months, beginning Jan. 10 of this year. By the time crops are in the ground, Owens will be legal to spray again.

Other pilots flying for Owens' company have paid fines four times since 1998. Efforts to reach Owens failed this week.

Critics say North Carolina's pesticide enforcers are unequipped to deal with flagrant violators.

"For the most part, farms are big industrial operations, and they're run like factories," said Fawn Pattison, director of the N.C. Agricultural Resources Center, which opposes pesticide use. "But we don't regulate them that way."

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