State, feds investigate low-flying crop duster

It took Dan Cooper five days to overcome the dizziness that he said began after a crop duster flew low over his and other homes in a subdivision at the southern end of Ziegler Road on Aug. 20.

“Dizziness, sinuses swollen, just a little bit stumbly,” he said, describing his symptoms. He said he didn’t smell any chemicals being sprayed over his neighborhood, but the symptoms began soon after the flyover.

The crop duster, a Grumman G-164A biplane operated by Low Level Dusting of La Salle, was spraying a sugar beet field at 6131 Ziegler Road, buzzing homes in the Fossil Lake Ranch neighborhood only a few yards east of the field.

Cooper said the crop duster flew over his home in a subdivision just west of the field, too.

Stephanie Feller, a resident of Sagewater Court in Fossil Lake Ranch, said she photographed the airplane flying low over her yard with one of the plane’s chemical spraying nozzles still spraying chemicals as it flew over her house.

“When I was in the house, my nose started burning and I got a headache,” she said.

Now, after many complaints from area residents, both the Colorado Department of Agriculture and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.

Matt Lopez, pesticide enforcement manager for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, said the Low Level Dusting pilot was spraying a fungicide called Inspire XT, which is toxic to fish and can contaminate water if blown into it by the wind, according to the chemical’s website.

Inspire XT also causes eye and skin irritation, dizziness and drowsiness, according to the chemical’s material data safety sheet.

The state is investigating whether the chemical was being properly applied to the field under the Pesticide Applicator’s Act, and the investigation could go on for a year, Lopez said.

Source:  http://www.coloradoan.com