11.4 Categories 11, 12 & 13: Aerial and the Fumigation Categories

11.4 Categories 11, 12 & 13: Aerial and the Fumigation Categories

[!NOTE] Why these three carry the longest standards. 302 KAR 26:020 Section 4(7)(b) makes it a core competency to know that fumigation and aerial application require additional certification. Section 5 then spends more text on Categories 11 and 12 than on any other categories in the regulation, because a fumigant escape or an aerial drift event injures people who never agreed to be near the application.

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Category 11: Aerial

Section 3(11) scope. Persons applying pesticides using fixed or rotary wing aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles. And then the requirement candidates most often miss: "Persons obtaining this category shall also possess an additional license in another category that relates to the location of the intended target pest." Category 11 authorizes the platform; a second category authorizes the site. A drone application to corn needs Category 11 plus Category 1(a).

Section 5(11) competency has five lettered parts:

(a) Labeling

Labeling requirements and restrictions specific to aerial application, including spray volumes, buffers and no-spray zones, and weather conditions specific to wind and inversions.

(b) Application Equipment - Eleven Named Competencies

The regulation enumerates them, and they read like a checklist:

1. The importance of inspecting application equipment to ensure proper operating condition before beginning;
2. Selecting proper nozzles to ensure appropriate dispersal and minimize drift;
3. Knowledge of the components of an aerial system - hoppers, tanks, pumps, and types of nozzles;
4. Interpreting a nozzle flow rate chart;
5. Determining the number of nozzles for intended output using the flow rate chart, aircraft speed, and swath width;
6. Placing nozzles to compensate for uneven airflow from wingtip vortices, helicopter rotor turbulence, and propeller turbulence;
7. Where to place nozzles to produce the appropriate droplet size;
8. Maintaining the system - pressure gauge accuracy, filter cleaning on schedule, checking nozzles for excessive wear;
9. Calculating required and actual flow rates;
10. Verifying flow rate using fixed timing, open timing, known distance, or a flow meter;
11. When to adjust and calibrate.

Items 4, 5, 9, and 10 are the aerial analogue of the ground calibration math in Section 8.2: the variables become aircraft speed and swath width instead of ground speed and nozzle spacing, but the logic - output per unit area - is identical.

(c) Application Considerations

Weather conditions that affect engine power, take-off distance, and climb rate, or that promote spray droplet evaporation; how to determine wind velocity, direction, and air density at the site; and the potential impact of thermals and temperature inversions.

(d) Minimizing Drift

Determining drift potential using a smoke generator; evaluating vertical and horizontal smoke plumes to assess wind direction, speed, and concentration; selecting techniques that minimize movement out of the treated area; and documenting special equipment configurations or flight patterns used to reduce off-target drift.

(e) Performing the Application

Selecting a flight altitude that minimizes streaking and off-target drift; choosing a flight pattern that ensures applicator and bystander safety; engaging and disengaging spray precisely at swath entry and exit; swath marking tools such as GPS and flags; and recordkeeping requirements for aerial applications including application conditions if applicable.

Note that the regulation puts recordkeeping inside the competency standard, and separately, 302 KAR 26:030 Section 2(2)(n) sweeps in "any other record as required by the label" - which on many aerial labels means wind speed, direction, and temperature at the time of application.

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The Fumigation Boundary: 12, 13, and 7(b)

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                  WHICH FUMIGATION CATEGORY APPLIES?                         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                             |
|   Are you fumigating SOIL?                                                  |
|        YES  ->  CATEGORY 12  (Soil Fumigation)                              |
|        NO   ->  continue                                                    |
|                                                                             |
|   Is the thing being fumigated a STRUCTURE INTENDED FOR                     |
|   HUMAN OCCUPANCY?                                                          |
|        YES  ->  CATEGORY 7(b)  (Structural Fumigation)                      |
|        NO   ->  CATEGORY 13    (Non-Soil Fumigation)                        |
|                                                                             |
|   Stored grain, commodities, rail cars, containers, chambers -> 13          |
|   Tented dwelling, occupied building -> 7(b)                                |
|   Pre-plant field, nursery bed, greenhouse soil -> 12                       |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Remember the history: the pre-2022 Category 1(b) Agricultural Fumigation was converted by Section 10(2) into Categories 12 and 13. Stored-grain fumigation is now a Category 13 activity.

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Category 12: Soil Fumigation

Section 3(12) scope. Persons who use or supervise the use of a pesticide to fumigate soil.

Section 5(12) competency opens with labeling comprehension for soil fumigants, requiring familiarity with:

• Labeling requirements specific to soil fumigants;
• Requirements for certified applicators of fumigants, fumigant handlers and permitted fumigant handler activities, and the safety information certified applicators must provide to noncertified applicators using fumigants under their direct supervision;
• Entry-restricted periods for tarped and untarped field application scenarios;
• Recordkeeping requirements; and
• Labeling provisions unique to fumigant products containing certain active ingredients.

It continues into safety measures paralleling the non-soil fumigant standard. Operationally, Category 12 work in Kentucky means chloropicrin, metam sodium, metam potassium, and dazomet in specialty vegetable, strawberry plasticulture, nursery, and greenhouse soils, with tarping versus water seal as the sealing decision, EPA Fumigant Management Plans required before application, buffer zones calculated from application rate, block size, and method, and handler air monitoring.

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Category 13 and 7(b): The Non-Soil Fumigant Standard

Section 5(7)(b) sets out the eight-part standard that governs non-soil fumigation. It is worth knowing by its structure:

Two structural points to carry into the exam. First, the fumigant management plan is a document with an owner, a location, a retention period, an access list, and a verifier - the regulation asks about all five. Second, buffer zones are not merely distances; the standard asks who is permitted to be inside one and how it is monitored.

Kentucky Category 13 work is dominated by phosphine (aluminum and magnesium phosphide) in stored grain, elevators, and rail cars, where the exposure hazards are the delayed generation of gas from the formulation, the risk of a flammable atmosphere, and re-entry timing after aeration. Category 7(b) work is dominated by sulfuryl fluoride in tented structures, where occupant and neighbor clearance, warning agent use, and clearance air monitoring before re-occupancy control the job.

Exam Alert: Two things reliably decide fumigation questions: the soil / human-occupancy decision tree that separates 12, 13, and 7(b); and the fumigant management plan's five attributes - when it is in effect, how long it is kept, where it is kept during the application, who has access, and who verifies it. For aerial, remember that Category 11 alone is never enough - you also need a category matching the target site.