The Oregon Department of Agriculture passed along word that the formerly-mandatory Pesticide Use Reporting System (PURS) is on hold due to budget cutbacks:
As directed by the State Legislature, the Oregon Department of Agriculture has suspended its Pesticide Use Reporting System (PURS) until January 2013 at the earliest. Those required to report their pesticide use online will no longer need to file reports until further notice. The electronic reporting system will no longer allow reports to be filed. State budget constraints forced PURS to be suspended for the current biennium and beyond. The requirement to report annual pesticide use applied to anyone using a registered pesticide or pest control product in the course of business, or for a government entity, or in a public place. PURS began collecting reports in January 2007. Even though some users had filed reports for 2009 pesticide use, there is no longer a requirement to continue reporting at this time. Those who had yet to report 2009 use will not need to and will not face any enforcement action for failing to report. Reports previously filed into PURS are not available to the pesticide users who filed those reports.
Worth noting, this does NOT mean that pesticide users no longer need to keep records of pesticide use. The same record keeping requirements still exist under state and federal law. It’s just the PURS reporting that is no longer required.
