Request to Review Restricted Materials Permits within One Mile of Ohlone Elementary, Pajaro Middle, and Hall District Elementary, and for Stay Pending Review

Community groups, represented by Earthjustice, are challenging the issuance of restricted materials permits in Monterey County, California. They argue that the Agricultural Commissioner failed to conduct required environmental impact analyses, ignored local conditions—specifically the proximity of three schools—and neglected to consider cumulative health effects of multiple pesticides on children and farmworkers. The request seeks the rescission of these permits and a stay on all pesticide applications within a one-mile radius of the affected schools.

• Air quality monitoring at Ohlone Elementary School shows that levels of the restricted fumigant 1,3-D have exceeded the safe harbor level set by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) every year since 2012.
• Monterey County has the highest percentage of students attending schools in areas with the greatest pesticide use, affecting up to 18,525 students annually according to a 2014 report.
• The challenged permits are criticized for lacking substantive environmental analysis, relying instead on boilerplate attestations from applicants that they have considered environmental factors.
• The document asserts that the Agricultural Commissioner failed to properly map sensitive receptors, noting that many permit maps ignore the presence of the three targeted schools despite them being within one mile of the application sites.
• The request highlights a pattern where the Commissioner issues initial permits and later adds restricted fumigants like 1,3-D and chloropicrin via supplements that lack additional environmental review.
• The document argues that the Commissioner failed to conduct a meaningful alternatives analysis, as operators provided only cursory lists of non-chemical or reduced-risk alternatives without explaining why they were rejected.
• There is evidence of significant health hazards from fumigant drift in Monterey County, including mass casualty events in 2012 and 2013 where 40 to 50 fieldworkers were sickened by 1,3-D.
• The document claims that the combined use of fumigants like MITC, 1,3-D, and chloropicrin creates synergistic effects that damage DNA and increase carcinogenic risks.

APA

Earthjustice (2022). Request to Review Restricted Materials Permits within One Mile of Ohlone Elementary, Pajaro Middle, and Hall District Elementary, and for Stay Pending Review. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/request_for_review_of_restricted_materials_permits_20221012a.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. Request to Review Restricted Materials Permits within One Mile of Ohlone Elementary, Pajaro Middle, and Hall District Elementary, and for Stay Pending Review. 2022. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/request_for_review_of_restricted_materials_permits_20221012a.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Earthjustice |title=Request to Review Restricted Materials Permits within One Mile of Ohlone Elementary, Pajaro Middle, and Hall District Elementary, and for Stay Pending Review |date=12 October 2022 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/request_for_review_of_restricted_materials_permits_20221012a.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{earthjustice2022request, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Request to Review Restricted Materials Permits within One Mile of Ohlone Elementary, Pajaro Middle, and Hall District Elementary, and for Stay Pending Review}}, publisher = {Earthjustice}, year = {2022}, month = oct, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/request_for_review_of_restricted_materials_permits_20221012a.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }