2.5 Regulations 633, 636, 637 & 640, Business Licensing and the Notification Registry

Why the Regulation Numbers Matter

Quick Answer: Part 83 of NREPA is the statute; the day-to-day operating rules live in four MDARD regulations. Regulation 633 covers restricted-use pesticides and the dealers who sell them. Regulation 636 covers applicators — categories, certification, registration, business licensing, records, and supervision. Regulation 637 covers pesticide use — application standards, communication and documentation, MDARD registries, IPM requirements, equipment, and safety. Regulation 640 covers commercial pesticide bulk storage. Exam items often name the regulation, so knowing which rule set owns which subject is worth memorizing.

Candidates who study only the statute get caught here. Part 83 grants authority in broad language; the numbers you actually have to comply with — three years of records, a 48-hour school notice, a two-week training window, a $25,000 property-damage minimum — are in the regulations.

The Pesticide Application Business License

Certification licenses a person. If pesticides are applied for hire, the business also needs a pesticide application business license (PABL). The two are separate, and holding one does not satisfy the other — a common enforcement finding against new lawn-care and pest-control startups.

Regulation 636 sets the conditions:

• The applicant must be a certified applicator or must employ one to apply, or supervise the application of, pesticides.
• The certified applicator named on the license application may not represent more than one licensee or place of business. One certified applicator cannot paper over three companies.
• The licensee must notify MDARD of any change in the status of the certified applicator named on the license.
• The application must be accompanied by a certificate of insurance effective for the whole license period.

The financial-responsibility minimums are specific numbers, which makes them good true/false material:

The policy must not exclude bodily injury and property damage arising from pesticide applications — an ordinary general-liability policy with a pollution exclusion does not qualify. If the coverage lapses mid-period, the license is suspended and must be surrendered until coverage is restored. Where an applicant qualifies in two categories with different minimums, the greater requirement applies.

Supervising Noncertified Applicators

Regulation 636, Rule 16, is short and heavily tested, and it is the state counterpart to the supervision competency the third-edition National Core Manual added:

1. A certified applicator who supervises is responsible for the actions of the noncertified applicator under their instruction or management. Responsibility does not transfer to the worker.
2. When a noncertified applicator applies a restricted-use pesticide and the certified applicator is not required to be physically present, the certified applicator must provide verifiable instructions — oral or written — and those instructions must include how to contact the certified applicator. Sending someone out with a work order and an unanswered phone is a violation.
3. The certified applicator must be physically present whenever the label, the act, or the director requires it. The label is the most common trigger, so read it before deciding whether a supervised application is lawful.
4. Every pilot who applies pesticides from an aircraft must be certified. There is no supervised-pilot workaround.

The Two-Week Training Window

Regulation 636, Rule 8, allows a noncertified or nonregistered applicator to apply general-use pesticides as part of an approved training program for 2 consecutive weeks, under the direct supervision of a certified applicator. Three conditions make or break it:

• The approved trainer must notify the MDARD director before the two-week period begins, using the department's form and procedure.
• The noncertified applicator may not apply anything until MDARD has received that notification. Sending in the form on day three does not retroactively cure days one and two.
• The noncertified applicator must carry a copy of the notification form and show it to the director's representative on request.

At the end of the window the person must be registered or certified, or they stop applying. Regulation 636 also has a narrow safety valve at Rule 17: on written application, and after review by the pesticide advisory committee, the director may authorize incidental use of general-use pesticides by noncertified persons when applying pesticides is not the primary work assignment and is an integral part of another operation.

The Pesticide Notification Registry

Michigan operates a Pesticide Notification Registry under Regulation 637. A person with a physician-diagnosed condition that makes them sensitive to pesticides may register with MDARD to be notified before a pesticide application is made to turf or ornamental plantings on property adjacent to theirs.

For applicators, the practical duties are:

• Check the registry before treating turf or ornamentals in a residential setting, because the notice duty is triggered by the neighbor's registration, not by the customer's request.
• Give the notice before the application, not after.
• Document it, so you can show MDARD that the registered neighbor was notified.

The registry is easy to overlook because it protects someone who is not your customer and may never contact you. It sits alongside — not instead of — the school and day-care notification rules in section 8316 and Regulation 637, Rule 15, and the lawn-marker posting required immediately after turf and ornamental treatments at schools, day cares, commercial and public buildings, and health-care facilities.

How the Pieces Fit Together

Think of a for-hire lawn application in Michigan as passing through all four regulations at once. The product's classification comes from 633. The applicator's credential, the supervision rules, the business license, and the record you keep afterward come from 636. How you apply it, whether a neighbor on the notification registry must be told first, and the sign you leave behind come from 637. And if you store the concentrate in a bulk tank at the shop, 640 governs the tank. Miss any one of them and the enforcement finding is written against that regulation by number.