2.11 Unlawful Acts, Enforcement, Penalties & License Discipline

2.11 Unlawful Acts, Enforcement, Penalties & License Discipline

The enforcement chain: an inspector documents conduct → the conduct is matched to an unlawful act in § 35-10-117 or a rule violation → CDA chooses among civil penalty (§ 35-10-122), licensure action (§ 35-10-121 and Part 2 Subpart E), and, for repeated or specified conduct, criminal referral (§ 35-10-123). Understanding which tool applies to which facts is the point of this section.

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1. Civil Penalties (C.R.S. § 35-10-122)

All civil penalties collected are transmitted as directed by § 35-10-126.

[!WARNING] $2,500 — not $1,000, not $5,000, and not "per day." Article 10 sets a per-violation ceiling with a second-violation doubling provision. There is no daily-accrual mechanism in the statute, and there is no separate "willful" tier in § 35-10-122; willfulness matters instead for licensure action and for how many separate violations are charged.

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2. Criminal Penalties (C.R.S. § 35-10-123)

Colorado's criminal provisions are structured around repetition:

• § 35-10-123(1): No person may be charged criminally unless it is determined, after notice and hearing under Article 4 of Title 24, that the person has twice committed the violation to be charged. This gate does not apply to violations of § 35-10-117(1)(a), (1)(b), (1)(c), (1)(g), and (5) — those may be charged on a single occurrence.
• § 35-10-123(2) and (3): violations of the enumerated subsections of § 35-10-117 constitute class 2 misdemeanors, punished as provided in § 18-1.3-501.

Contrast this again with chemigation: operating a chemigation system without a permit is a class 6 felony under a different statute, § 35-11-115(1).

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3. Grounds for Licensure Action

Statutory grounds (§ 35-10-121)

The Commissioner may issue letters of admonition, impose discipline through stipulation, or restrict, impose probation on, deny, suspend, refuse to renew, or revoke any license or registration if the applicant, registrant, or licensee:

1. Has refused or failed to comply with any provision of Article 10, any rule, or any lawful order of the Commissioner;
2. Has been convicted of a felony for an offense related to the conduct regulated by Article 10;
3. Has had an equivalent license or registration denied, revoked, or suspended by any authority;
4. Has been adjudicated a violator of FIFRA (a consent decree with EPA does not count unless the order or decree specifically states that a violation occurred);
5. Has refused to provide the Commissioner with reasonable, complete, and accurate information about methods, materials, or work performed when requested; or
6. Has falsified any information requested by the Commissioner.

Discipline imposed in another jurisdiction may be accepted as prima facie evidence of grounds for action here, if the underlying violation would be grounds in Colorado.

Rule grounds (Part 2.62)

Independently, any of the following is grounds for suspension, restriction, refusal to renew, denial, or revocation:

• Applying pesticides in a negligent or willful manner which creates, by residue or by direct damage, a hazard to property — expressly including crops, ornamental plants, and animals, and specifically economically important insects;
• Applying pesticides in a negligent or willful manner which endangers human health;
• Creating a situation from improper handling — including spillage, leakage, vapors, or disposal — that constitutes a hazard to the health, welfare, or safety of any person, the general public, any animal, any crop, any ornamental plant, or the environment.

[!IMPORTANT] "Economically important insects" means bees. Part 2.62(a) and (c) both name animals "including economically important insects," which is the hook CDA uses for pollinator kills caused by negligent application. Damage to a managed hive is property damage under this rule, not merely an environmental concern.

Procedure and aftermath

• Proceedings are conducted under Article 4 of Title 24. The ordinary § 24-4-104(3) pre-action notice does not apply in cases of deliberate or willful violation, violation of labeling directions or requirements, or where the licensee's acts or omissions caused or threatened substantial danger or harm to public health and safety, property, or the environment — but even in those cases the Commissioner must give written notice of the facts or conduct and an opportunity to submit written data, views, and arguments.
• A revoked licensee may not apply or reapply for any license or registration under Article 10 until two years after the date of revocation.
• Any person aggrieved by a final disciplinary action may appeal to the Colorado Court of Appeals under § 24-4-106(11).

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4. Business License Lapse Is Its Own Enforcement Risk

A commercial applicator's business license carries a mechanical schedule that functions as a penalty (§ 35-10-107):

Working while unlicensed is an unlawful act in its own right, so a lapsed business license converts every subsequent job into a chargeable violation.

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5. Public Transparency (§ 35-10-124)

The Commissioner must provide internet access to finalized enforcement action information to the general public, consisting at a minimum of the name of the violator, the date of the action, the city or county in which the violation occurred, and the nearest major intersection of roads to the site. The Commissioner may also publish information on the use and handling of pesticides and conduct workshops informing applicators of new developments.

For a commercial business, that database is a durable, searchable record attached to the company name — which in practice is a stronger deterrent than the dollar figure of any single penalty.

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6. What Inspectors Find Most Often

Enforcement rarely begins with a dramatic incident. The recurring findings are administrative:

1. Application records missing an element — most often the EPA registration number, the carrier when it is not water, or a time entry that does not state start or stop.
2. Technician training files that are incomplete, not on the Commissioner's form, or not retained for employment plus three years.
3. Category mismatch — performing work outside the categories held, or omitting a required rider such as 114, 303, 309A, or 309B.
4. Equipment identification missing, undersized, or faded below legibility.
5. Liability insurance not on file at the time an application was performed.
6. Notification failures — missing the registry list, missing the 250-foot database, or posting a sign that does not carry the statutory wording.

Every one of these is preventable with a checklist, and every one is independently chargeable.