EPA reaches settlement with Kings County and a company for pesticide violations

The Environmental Protection Agency reached a settlement with Kings County and a company for pesticide violations in the San Joaquin Valley, the agency announced Monday.

Kings County has agreed to pay a total of $9,200 in civil penalties for violations found during an inspection at the county’s pesticide manufacturing facility in Hanford in March 2015, spokeswoman Soledad Calvino said. The inspection found the county’s Agricultural Commissioner-Sealer Department failed to mark two rodenticide products with batch codes and failed to keep an inventory record.

The settlement agreement was the first of its kind with a county in California, Calvino said.

The EPA also settled with Leffingwell Ag Sales Company, Inc., a major pesticide re-packager and distributor, over improperly stored and misbranded agricultural pesticides, Calvino said. The company, with operating facilities in Lindsay and Terra Bella, has agreed to pay $33,040 in civil penalties and has corrected all the identified compliance issues.

Both cases were brought under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, Calvino said.

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 11:12 PM with the headline "EPA reaches settlement with Kings County and a company for pesticide violations."