(a)The Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets may personally or through the Secretary’s duly authorized agents:
(1)Survey swamps or other sections within the State suspected of being mosquito or other biting arthropod breeding areas.
(2)Map each section so surveyed, indicate all mosquito or other biting arthropod breeding places and determine methods best adapted for mosquito or other biting arthropod abatement in the areas by drainage, habitat modification, or other means.
(3)Investigate the mosquito or other biting arthropod life history and habits and determine the species present within the areas, and make any other studies the Secretary deems necessary to provide useful information in mosquito or other biting arthropod abatement.
(4)Make the results of the Secretary’s surveys
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(a) The Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets may personally or through the Secretary’s duly authorized agents:
(1) Survey swamps or other sections within the State suspected of being mosquito or other biting arthropod breeding areas.
(2) Map each section so surveyed, indicate all mosquito or other biting arthropod breeding places and determine methods best adapted for mosquito or other biting arthropod abatement in the areas by drainage, habitat modification, or other means.
(3) Investigate the mosquito or other biting arthropod life history and habits and determine the species present within the areas, and make any other studies the Secretary deems necessary to provide useful information in mosquito or other biting arthropod abatement.
(4) Make the results of the Secretary’s surveys, investigations, and studies available to the Department of Health or relevant select board members, or mayors and shall do so also upon request, shall make those results available to any organizations or individuals interested in mosquito or other biting arthropod surveillance work.
(5) Issue or deny permits to any person for the use of larvicides or pupacides for mosquito control in the waters of the State pursuant to procedures adopted under 3 V.S.A. chapter 25. Such procedures shall include provisions regarding an opportunity for public review and comment on permit applications. Persons applying for a permit shall apply on a form provided by the Agency. Before issuing a permit under this subsection, the Secretary shall find, after consultation with the Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, that there is acceptable risk to the nontarget environment and that there is negligible risk to public health.
(6) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (5) of this subsection, when the Commissioner of Health has determined that available information suggests that an imminent risk to public health exists as a result of a potential outbreak of West Nile Virus or other serious illness for which mosquitoes are vectors, the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets may issue permits for the use of larvicides or pupacides for mosquito control without prior public notice or comment.
(b) Notwithstanding any provisions of law to the contrary, a landowner may use a properly registered mosquito control pesticide for mosquito control on the landowner’s land without obtaining a permit, provided that the Secretary designates it as an acceptable control product for this purpose and the landowner complies with all requirements on the label of the product. (Amended 2001, No. 61, § 52, eff. June 16, 2001; 2003, No. 42, § 2, eff. May 27, 2003; 2021, No. 49, § 3, eff. Jan. 1, 2022; 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 100, eff. July 1, 2022; 2023, No. 53, § 10, eff. June 8, 2023; 2023, No. 141 (Adj. Sess.), § 12, eff. July 1, 2024.)