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Kingston,Mi | Permanent pesticide storage, bulk liquid fertilizer and dry fertilizer are included in practice 702 in Michigan. Our cost share rates are a set price for several different variations. I have design and supervised between 75 and 100 such sites in 15 years. If you currently store fertilizer and it isn't in containment, you could apply for a structure or structures. Michigan requires a nutrient management plan that is based on MSU or the TRI-STATE recommendations and the application records are checked each year of the contract. Pesticide storage/mix load structures only require that you use pesticides and they require a pest management plan that recieves yearly review. Any of the buildings may not store anything other than bulk liquid fertilizer, and/or pesticides plus (1) sprayer. We found that many such buildings were growing beyond the needed size and that all sorts of non spray equip. was being stored in them, so a few inovative farmers have brought down more regulations on the rest. Michigan Dept. of Agriculture has very specific rules that indicate when a building stores both bulk liquid fertilizer and pesticides, which may use the others containment vol. Michigan practice standard 702 also prohibits the storing of seed in either building. The reason to exclude storing machinery other than the sprayer or applicator in the building is in case of fire, all of our local fire districts will let it burn to the ground and incinerate the pesticides rather than flood the strucuture and cause a diluted pesicide to run every where. The machinery issue is more machinery, more loss for the farmer. The argument on seed came from a large seed grower how stted that the seed was treated and requried storage in this style of building. MDA disagreed and our state office specifically ruled it out of our cost shared buildings. A little of tangent from the start of the post, but the pest management plan requires a plan to prevent spray drift or it will not be accepted and without an acceptable plan, no eqip contract,no cost share. | |
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EPA starts over on spray drift
