Leah Beth Ward | Yakima Herald Republic

Politics and pesticides can be a combustible mix, so when state legislators created a special panel 18 years ago to track and investigate pesticide incidents, the members were supposed to steer clear of taking sides.

But during the most recent legislative session, a majority of panel members voted to send letters to legislators recommending bills to increase the monitoring and regulation of growers and pesticide applicators.

The activist position by the Pesticide Incident Reporting and Tracking Review Panel, or PIRT for short, displeased state Agriculture Director Valoria Loveland.

"I feel very strongly that PIRT should not directly comment to the legislature regarding any bills under consideration, especially when doing so can put PIRT's member state agencies at odds with the governor's position or direction," Loveland wrote in a March letter to various agency heads, legislators and PIRT members.

PIRT members -- mostly midlevel state employees from various state agencies -- tried to undo the damage by changing their votes in favor of introducing the legislation from "yes" to "abstain" at a subsequent meeting.

But complaints about the panel have reached Secretary of Health Mary Selecky, whose agency coordinates the panel. Her office arranged for a refresher course for the panel.

At its monthly meeting today in Tumwater, the panel will hear from Assistant Attorney General Mark Calkins on proper procedure, including making legislative comments, handling requests for public information, recording meetings and dissenting votes and other Robert's Rules of Order.

"It's somewhat of a refresher, to give them a generic legal overview tied to the issues that have been somewhat controversial recently," Calkins said Wednesday.

Ultimately, one of the measures PIRT took a position on died early in the session. House Bill 1946 would have set up a $4 million electronic reporting system.

The other ended up in Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget as a $538,000 appropriation to study whether pesticides drift from fields into residential areas.

Farm-worker advocates have long backed a rule to require growers to give 48-hour advance notice to day-care centers and schools before spraying. They hope the pilot program will eventually get them there.

Growers also received some money in the Gregoire budget: $550,000 to help the industry continue phasing out the chemicals most concerning to watchdogs.

What Loveland didn't have to say in her reprimand to the panel was that Gregoire, a narrowly elected Democrat, has taken pains to cultivate the goodwill of one of the state's most important industries -- the nearly $6 billion tree-fruit business.

Gregoire has touted cherries in Asia and apples in Mexico and supported additional water storage and drought-relief measures in Eastern Washington.

Growers are grateful for the chance to demonstrate that they are moving to replace compounds like organophosphates, an insecticide that kills the apple-destroying codling moth. Exposure to the chemical in humans can stop a key nervous-system enzyme from working, causing illness.

But the incident with PIRT prompted the Washington State Horticultural Association to conclude the panel "is being dominated by special interest politics and personal agendas."

Jim Hazen, the association's executive director, expressed his displeasure in a letter this month to Selecky.

He said the PIRT panel spends little time discussing the data that go into its annual report. The report identifies trends in pesticide exposure, accidents, safety and use.

"The panel continues to stray and make missteps due to this preoccupation on issues unrelated to the enabling mission," he wrote.

Sen. Mark Shoesler, R-Ritzville, a wheat and canola grower and cattle rancher, recalled the creation of the panel in 1989.

"In the past, they were the ones who gave us the baseline information that as policymakers we needed. They sorted fact from fiction. Now I think they've gotten away from that," Shoesler said.

Donn Moyer, a spokesman for Selecky, said the agency is looking into Hazen's complaints.

"We share the concerns and are striving to help PIRT retain the momentum it's had in the past," Moyer said.

PIRT's mission is to coordinate state pesticide investigations, monitor how agencies handle incidents and reports of exposure, and track data to form the basis for policy decisions.

PIRT members come from all of the agencies that have a hand in regulating and enforcing state pesticides rules and laws: the Department of Labor and Industries, Agriculture, Health, Ecology, Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife and the Washington Poison Center.

The remaining members are to be environmental-health and pesticide experts from Washington State University and the University of Washington, a practicing toxicologist and a member of the public appointed by the governor.