A Morton farmer has been fined $250,000 by the Illinois Department of Agriculture [IDOA] for applying pesticides on a farm near the Bethel Lutheran School while the school hosting an outdoor event.
In the notice of the fine, Mark Eigsti also received notice of the revocation of his private applicator and operator licenses as a result of violating the Illinois Pesticide Act.
That’s what Katie Vanderberg found in a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request to the IDOA to find out more about what happened in the case involving her daughter.
“Right now, everything’s okay. I think what happened was incredibly unfortunate and stressful for families, especially families whose kids already suffer from allergies, asthma…things like that,” Vandenberg said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
Vandenberg said she was happy with how serious the IDOA took the complaints and investigation.
“And the fact that we filed complaints at 6 p.m. on a Thursday, and they were at the school by Noon the next day with three inspectors, showed how important the IDOA takes the seriousness of health and wellbeing, especially of children,” she said.
She left the initial complaint with IDOA after she and other parents were notified by the school by email that high winds drifted the pesticides from the farm across the street to the school’s parking lot. Vanderberg said she supports an amendment to the Illinois Pesticide Act to better protect families and communities.
Some Illinois lawmakers feel the same. Democratic state Rep. Laura Faver Dias, representing a suburb of Chicago, sponsored the bill to require farmers spraying pesticides near a school or park to send an email 72 hours in advance notifying when they would be applying the pesticides.
The amendment to the Illinois Pesticide Act was referred to the rules committee on April 17 of this year and has had no movement since.
Vandenberg said she hopes it will be revisited in the fall veto session, because she believes it could help more than just children.
“I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit, and I actually think this could be good for farmers to get this passed,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of pushback from the [Illinois] Farm Bureau, from the [Illinois] Soybean Association, and from people that support them, but if this was in place, this would have been one more checkpoint for that farmer to consider.”
“One more stop, and he wouldn’t have to deal with the stress, the time, the energy and now obviously a huge bill that he has to pay to the IDOA.”
Opponents, such as Rep. Bill Hauter, the representative of the Morton farm, said the bill adds too much regulation to farmers, and requires too much of them to account for changing weather.
“I think at the end of the day, it’s people, especially children’s health, future health. My daughter is 10, hopefully she has children someday, and hopefully those kids can be health,” Vandenberg said. “We don’t know what could happen from something like this, and I think above all, that’s what should matter.”
Hauter also said that instead of the bill, more schools should have medical response plans to pesticide exposure. Vandenberg said she believes schools are already responsible for enough.
“I think that most school administrator and teachers are probably pretty exhausted from having to protect kids from things that are happening on the outside that our legislators and our representatives are not taking care of when they could very easily take care of it,” she said. “I don’t think that [Hauter’s] response is the proper response.”
Regardless of what outcome the bill faces, Vandenberg said she hopes farmers and residents of farm communities will have a better understanding of how to protect their health.
“…even if you're not a parent and you have it happening near your home, or if you're maybe a grandparent at a park and you see something happening, you know that there are ways to report it,” she said. “I think up until now a lot of people just thought, ‘oh, this is terrible,’ and that's what I've heard from a lot of people, that they didn't even know that there was a way to put in a complaint.”
Vandenberg said she has been thrilled to see others advocate for changes to the Illinois Pesticide Act.
Reached by phone, Mark Eigsti declined to comment.
