Bill Text: IL HB5018 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Illinois Pesticide Act. Increases monetary penalties, and increases point values in determining monetary penalties. Distinguishes pesticide effects on woody perennial plants and herbaceous plants with respect to penalties. Defines terms.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-19 - Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB5018 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB5018-Introduced.html

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103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2023 and 2024 HB5018 Introduced , by Rep. Maura Hirschauer SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
415 ILCS 60/4 from Ch. 5, par. 804
415 ILCS 60/24.1 from Ch. 5, par. 824.1
Amends the Illinois Pesticide Act. Increases monetary penalties, and increases point values in determining monetary penalties. Distinguishes pesticide effects on woody perennial plants and herbaceous plants with respect to penalties. Defines terms.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning safety.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Illinois Pesticide Act is amended by
changing Sections 4 and 24.1 as follows:
(415 ILCS 60/4) (from Ch. 5, par. 804)
Sec. 4. Definitions. As used in this Act:
1. "Director" means Director of the Illinois Department of
Agriculture or his authorized representative.
2. "Active Ingredient" means any ingredient which will
prevent, destroy, repel, control or mitigate a pest or which
will act as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant.
3. "Adulterated" shall apply to any pesticide if the
strength or purity is not within the standard of quality
expressed on the labeling under which it is sold, distributed
or used, including any substance which has been substituted
wholly or in part for the pesticide as specified on the
labeling under which it is sold, distributed or used, or if any
valuable constituent of the pesticide has been wholly or in
part abstracted.
4. "Agricultural Commodity" means produce of the land,
including, but not limited to, plants and plant parts,
livestock and poultry and livestock or poultry products,

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seeds, sod, shrubs and other products of agricultural origin
including the premises necessary to and used directly in
agricultural production. Agricultural commodity also includes
aquatic products, including any aquatic plants and animals or
their by-products that are produced, grown, managed, harvested
and marketed on an annual, semi-annual, biennial or short-term
basis, in permitted aquaculture facilities.
5. "Animal" means all vertebrate and invertebrate species
including, but not limited to, man and other mammals, birds,
fish, and shellfish.
5.5. "Barrier mosquitocide" means a pesticide that is
formulated to kill adult mosquitoes and that is applied so as
to leave a residual mosquitocidal coating on natural or
manmade surfaces. "Barrier mosquitocide" does not include a
product that is exempt from registration under the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or rules adopted
pursuant to that Act.
5.6. "Barrier mosquitocide treatment" means application of
a barrier mosquitocide to a natural or manmade surface.
6. "Beneficial Insects" means those insects which during
their life cycle are effective pollinators of plants,
predators of pests or are otherwise beneficial.
7. "Certified applicator".
A. "Certified applicator" means any individual who is
certified under this Act to purchase, use, or supervise
the use of pesticides which are classified for restricted

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use.
B. "Private applicator" means a certified applicator
who purchases, uses, or supervises the use of any
pesticide classified for restricted use, for the purpose
of producing any agricultural commodity on property owned,
rented, or otherwise controlled by him or his employer, or
applied to other property if done without compensation
other than trading of personal services between no more
than 2 producers of agricultural commodities.
C. "Licensed Commercial Applicator" means a certified
applicator, whether or not he is a private applicator with
respect to some uses, who owns or manages a business that
is engaged in applying pesticides, whether classified for
general or restricted use, for hire. The term also applies
to a certified applicator who uses or supervises the use
of pesticides, whether classified for general or
restricted use, for any purpose or on property of others
excluding those specified by subparagraphs 7 (B), (D), (E)
of Section 4 of this Act.
D. "Commercial Not For Hire Applicator" means a
certified applicator who uses or supervises the use of
pesticides classified for general or restricted use for
any purpose on property of an employer when such activity
is a requirement of the terms of employment and such
application of pesticides under this certification is
limited to property under the control of the employer only

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and includes, but is not limited to, the use or
supervision of the use of pesticides in a greenhouse
setting. "Commercial Not For Hire Applicator" also
includes a certified applicator who uses or supervises the
use of pesticides classified for general or restricted use
as an employee of a state agency, municipality, or other
duly constituted governmental agency or unit.
8. "Defoliant" means any substance or combination of
substances which cause leaves or foliage to drop from a plant
with or without causing abscission.
9. "Desiccant" means any substance or combination of
substances intended for artificially accelerating the drying
of plant tissue.
10. "Device" means any instrument or contrivance, other
than a firearm or equipment for application of pesticides when
sold separately from pesticides, which is intended for
trapping, repelling, destroying, or mitigating any pest, other
than bacteria, virus, or other microorganisms on or living in
man or other living animals.
11. "Distribute" means offer or hold for sale, sell,
barter, ship, deliver for shipment, receive and then deliver,
or offer to deliver pesticides, within the State.
12. "Environment" includes water, air, land, and all
plants and animals including man, living therein and the
interrelationships which exist among these.
13. "Equipment" means any type of instruments and

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contrivances using motorized, mechanical or pressure power
which is used to apply any pesticide, excluding pressurized
hand-size household apparatus containing dilute ready to apply
pesticide or used to apply household pesticides.
14. "FIFRA" means the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and
Rodenticide Act, as amended.
15. "Fungi" means any non-chlorophyll bearing
thallophytes, any non-chlorophyll bearing plant of a lower
order than mosses or liverworts, as for example rust, smut,
mildew, mold, yeast and bacteria, except those on or in living
animals including man and those on or in processed foods,
beverages or pharmaceuticals.
15.5. "Herbaceous plants" means any non-woody, vascular
annual, biennial, or perennial plants.
16. "Household Substance" means any pesticide customarily
produced and distributed for use by individuals in or about
the household.
17. "Imminent Hazard" means a situation which exists when
continued use of a pesticide would likely result in
unreasonable adverse effects on the environment or will
involve unreasonable hazard to the survival of a species
declared endangered by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior or
to species declared to be protected by the Illinois Department
of Natural Resources.
18. "Inert Ingredient" means an ingredient which is not an
active ingredient.

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19. "Ingredient Statement" means a statement of the name
and percentage of each active ingredient together with the
total percentage of inert ingredients in a pesticide and for
pesticides containing arsenic in any form, the ingredient
statement shall include percentage of total and water soluble
arsenic, each calculated as elemental arsenic. In the case of
spray adjuvants the ingredient statement need contain only the
names of the functioning agents and the total percent of those
constituents ineffective as spray adjuvants.
20. "Insect" means any of the numerous small invertebrate
animals generally having the body more or less obviously
segmented for the most part belonging to the class Insects,
comprised of six-legged, usually winged forms, as for example
beetles, caterpillars, and flies. This definition encompasses
other allied classes of arthropods whose members are wingless
and usually have more than 6 legs as for example spiders,
mites, ticks, centipedes, and millipedes.
21. "Label" means the written, printed or graphic matter
on or attached to the pesticide or device or any of its
containers or wrappings.
22. "Labeling" means the label and all other written,
printed or graphic matter: (a) on the pesticide or device or
any of its containers or wrappings, (b) accompanying the
pesticide or device or referring to it in any other media used
to disseminate information to the public, (c) to which
reference is made to the pesticide or device except when

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references are made to current official publications of the U.
S. Environmental Protection Agency, Departments of
Agriculture, Health, Education and Welfare or other Federal
Government institutions, the state experiment station or
colleges of agriculture or other similar state institution
authorized to conduct research in the field of pesticides.
23. "Land" means all land and water area including
airspace, and all plants, animals, structures, buildings,
contrivances, and machinery appurtenant thereto or situated
thereon, fixed or mobile, including any used for
transportation.
24. "Licensed Operator" means a person employed to apply
pesticides to the lands of others under the direction of a
"licensed commercial applicator" or a "licensed commercial
not-for-hire applicator".
25. "Nematode" means invertebrate animals of the phylum
nemathelminthes and class nematoda, also referred to as nemas
or eelworms, which are unsegmented roundworms with elongated
fusiform or sac-like bodies covered with cuticle and
inhabiting soil, water, plants or plant parts.
26. "Permit" means a written statement issued by the
Director or his authorized agent, authorizing certain acts of
pesticide purchase or of pesticide use or application on an
interim basis prior to normal certification, registration, or
licensing.
27. "Person" means any individual, partnership,

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association, fiduciary, corporation, or any organized group of
persons whether incorporated or not.
28. "Pest" means (a) any insect, rodent, nematode, fungus,
weed, or (b) any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or
animal life or virus, bacteria, or other microorganism,
excluding virus, bacteria, or other microorganism on or in
living animals including man, which the Director declares to
be a pest.
29. "Pesticide" means any substance or mixture of
substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or
mitigating any pest or any substance or mixture of substances
intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant.
30. "Pesticide Dealer" means any person who distributes
registered pesticides to the user.
31. "Plant Regulator" means any substance or mixture of
substances intended through physiological action to affect the
rate of growth or maturation or otherwise alter the behavior
of ornamental or crop plants or the produce thereof. This does
not include substances which are not intended as plant
nutrient trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant or seed
inoculants or soil conditioners or amendments.
32. "Protect Health and Environment" means to guard
against any unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.
33. "Registrant" means a person who has registered any
pesticide pursuant to the provision of FIFRA and this Act.
34. "Restricted Use Pesticide" means any pesticide with

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one or more of its uses classified as restricted by order of
the Administrator of USEPA.
35. "SLN Registration" means registration of a pesticide
for use under conditions of special local need as defined by
FIFRA.
36. "State Restricted Pesticide Use" means any pesticide
use which the Director determines, subsequent to public
hearing, that an additional restriction for that use is needed
to prevent unreasonable adverse effects.
37. "Structural Pest" means any pests which attack and
destroy buildings and other structures or which attack
clothing, stored food, commodities stored at food
manufacturing and processing facilities or manufactured and
processed goods.
38. "Unreasonable Adverse Effects on the Environment"
means the unreasonable risk to the environment, including man,
from the use of any pesticide, when taking into account
accrued benefits of as well as the economic, social, and
environmental costs of its use.
39. "USEPA" means United States Environmental Protection
Agency.
40. "Use inconsistent with the label" means to use a
pesticide in a manner not consistent with the label
instruction, the definition adopted in FIFRA as interpreted by
USEPA shall apply in Illinois.
41. "Weed" means any plant growing in a place where it is

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not wanted.
42. "Wildlife" means all living things, not human,
domestic, or pests.
42.5. "Woody perennial plants" means any plant that
produces wood as its primary structure and whose life span is
longer than 2 years.
43. "Bulk pesticide" means any registered pesticide which
is transported or held in an individual container in undivided
quantities of greater than 55 U.S. gallons liquid measure or
100 pounds net dry weight.
44. "Bulk repackaging" means the transfer of a registered
pesticide from one bulk container (containing undivided
quantities of greater than 100 U.S. gallons liquid measure or
100 pounds net dry weight) to another bulk container
(containing undivided quantities of greater than 100 U.S.
gallons liquid measure or 100 pounds net dry weight) in an
unaltered state in preparation for sale or distribution to
another person.
45. "Business" means any individual, partnership,
corporation or association engaged in a business operation for
the purpose of selling or distributing pesticides or providing
the service of application of pesticides in this State.
46. "Facility" means any building or structure and all
real property contiguous thereto, including all equipment
fixed thereon used for the operation of the business.
47. "Chemigation" means the application of a pesticide

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through the systems or equipment employed for the primary
purpose of irrigation of land and crops.
48. "Use" means any activity covered by the pesticide
label, including, but not limited to, application of
pesticide, mixing and loading, storage of pesticides or
pesticide containers, disposal of pesticides and pesticide
containers and reentry into treated sites or areas.
(Source: P.A. 102-555, eff. 1-1-22; 102-916, eff. 1-1-23;
103-154, eff. 6-30-23.)
(415 ILCS 60/24.1) (from Ch. 5, par. 824.1)
Sec. 24.1. Administrative actions and penalties.
(1) The Director is authorized after an opportunity for an
administrative hearing to suspend, revoke, or modify any
license, permit, special order, registration, or certification
issued under this Act. This action may be taken in addition to
or in lieu of monetary penalties assessed as set forth in this
Section. When it is in the interest of the people of the State
of Illinois, the Director may, upon good and sufficient
evidence, suspend the registration, license, or permit until a
hearing has been held. In such cases, the Director shall issue
an order in writing setting forth the reasons for the
suspension. Such order shall be served personally on the
person or by registered or certified mail sent to the person's
business address as shown in the latest notification to the
Department. When such an order has been issued by the

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Director, the person may request an immediate hearing.
(2) Before initiating hearing proceedings, the Director
may issue an advisory letter to a violator of this Act or its
rules and regulations when the violation points total 6 or
less, as determined by the Department by the Use and Violation
Criteria established in this Section. When the Department
determines that the violation points total more than 6 but not
more than 13, the Director shall issue a warning letter to the
violator.
(3) The hearing officer upon determination of a violation
or violations shall assess one or more of the following
penalties:
(A) For any person applying pesticides without a
license or misrepresenting certification or failing to
comply with conditions of an agrichemical facility permit
or failing to comply with the conditions of a written
authorization for land application of agrichemical
contaminated soils or groundwater, a penalty of $500 shall
be assessed for the first offense and $1,000 for the
second and subsequent offenses.
(B) For violations of a stop use order imposed by the
Director, the penalty shall be $2500.
(C) For violations of a stop sale order imposed by the
Director, the penalty shall be $1500 for each individual
item of the product found in violation of the order.
(D) For selling restricted use pesticides to a

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non-certified applicator the penalty shall be $1000.
(E) For selling restricted use pesticides without a
dealer's license the penalty shall be $1,000.
(F) For constructing or operating without an
agrichemical facility permit after receiving written
notification, the penalty shall be $500 for the first
offense and $1,000 for the second and subsequent offenses.
(F-5) For any person found by the Department to have
committed a use inconsistent with the label, as defined in
subsection 40 of Section 4, that results in human exposure
to a pesticide, the penalty shall be assessed in
accordance with this paragraph (F-5). The Department shall
impose a penalty under this paragraph (F-5) only if it
represents an amount greater than the penalty assessed
under paragraph subparagraph (G). The amount of the
penalty under this paragraph (F-5) is calculated as
follows:
(a) If fewer than 3 humans are exposed, then the
penalty shall be $500 for each human exposed.
(b) If 3 or more humans but fewer than 5 humans are
exposed, then the penalty shall be $750 for each human
exposed.
(c) If 5 or more humans are exposed, then the
penalty shall be $1,250 for each human exposed.
If a penalty is imposed under this paragraph (F-5),
the Department shall redetermine the total violation

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points under subsection (4), less any points under
subsection (4) stemming from human exposure, and impose
any additional penalty under paragraph subparagraph (G)
based on the new total. The reassessed total shall not
affect any determination under subsection (2); any
determination under subsection (2) shall be determined by
the full application of points under subsection (4).
(G) For violations of the Act and rules and
regulations, administrative penalties will be based upon
the total violation points as determined by the Use and
Violation Criteria as set forth in subsection paragraph
(4) of this Section. The monetary penalties shall be as
follows:
Total Violation Points Monetary Penalties
12-13 $500
14-16 $1,250 $750
17-19 $2,500 $1000
20-21 $5,000 $2500
22-25 $7,500 $5000
26-29 $12,500 $7500
30 and above $17,500 $10,000
(4) Subject to paragraph (F-5), the following Use and
Violation Criteria establishes the point value which shall be
compiled to determine the total violation points and
administrative actions or monetary penalties to be imposed as
set forth in paragraph (3)(G) of this Section:

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(A) Point values shall be assessed upon the harm or
loss incurred.
(1) A point value of 1 shall be assessed for the
following:
(a) Exposure to a pesticide by plants, animals
or humans with no symptoms or damage noted.
(b) Fraudulent sales practices or
representations with no apparent monetary losses
involved.
(2) A point value of 2 shall be assessed for
exposure the following: (a) Exposure to a pesticide
which resulted in:
(a) Herbaceous plants (1) Plants or property
showing signs of damage, including, but not
limited to, leaf curl, burning, wilting, spotting,
or discoloration, or dying.
(b) (2) Garden produce or an agricultural crop
not being harvested on schedule.
(c) (3) Fraudulent sales practices or
representations resulting in losses under $500.
(3) A point value of 4 shall be assessed for the
following:
(a) Exposure to a pesticide resulting in a
human experiencing headaches, nausea, eye
irritation, and such other symptoms which
persisted less than 3 days.

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(b) Herbaceous plants Plant or property damage
resulting in permanent injury or death in a loss
below $1000.
(c) Animals exhibiting symptoms of pesticide
poisoning, including, but not limited to, eye or
skin irritations or lack of coordination.
(d) Death to less than 5 animals.
(e) Fraudulent sales practices or
representations resulting in losses from $500 to
$2000.
(f) Woody perennial plants showing signs of
damage, including, but not limited to, leaf curl,
burning, wilting, spotting, or discoloration.
(4) A point value of 6 shall be assessed for the
following:
(a) Exposure to a pesticide resulting in a
human experiencing headaches, nausea, eye
irritation, and such other symptoms which
persisted 3 or more days.
(b) Plant or property damage resulting in a
loss of $1000 or more.
(c) Death to 5 or more animals.
(d) Fraudulent sales practices or
representations resulting in losses over $2000.
(e) Woody perennial plants showing signs of
damage likely to cause an increased risk of

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mortality or damage which results in mortality.
(B) Point values shall be assessed based upon the
signal word on the label of the chemical involved:
Point Value Signal Word
1 Caution
2 Warning
4 Danger/Poison
(C) Point values shall be assessed based upon the
degree of responsibility.
Point Value Degree of Responsibility
2 Accidental (such as equipment
malfunction)
4 Negligence
10 Knowingly
(D) Point values shall be assessed based upon the
violator's history for the previous 3 years:
Point Value Record
2 Advisory letter
3 Warning letter
5
Previous criminal conviction of this Act or administrative violation resulting in a monetary penalty
7 Certification, license, or
registration currently
suspended or revoked

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(E) Point values shall be assessed based upon the
violation type:
(1) Application Oriented:
Point Value Violation
1 Inadequate records
2 Lack of supervision
2 Faulty equipment
Use contrary to label directions:
2 a. resulting in exposure to
applicator or operator
4 3 b. resulting in exposure to
other persons or the
environment
3 c. precautionary statements,
sites, rates, restricted use
requirements
4 3 Water contamination
3 Storage or disposal contrary
to label directions
4 3 Pesticide drift
4 Direct application to a
non-target site
6 Falsification of records
6
Failure to secure a permit or violation of permit or special
order

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