4.1 Oregon Pesticide Application Records
Key Takeaways
- ORS 634.146 lists nine required record elements, and OAR 603-057-0130 adds the full name and licence number of the applicator and of any supervised apprentice or trainee.
- Oregon application records must be kept at least three years from the date of application and be available during business hours for ODA inspection.
- ORS 634.146 sets no deadline for writing the record; the 14-day deadline is the federal USDA rule for private applicators' restricted-use pesticide records.
- Wind speed, wind direction and temperature are not ODA-required record elements, though the Addendum recommends recording them when a label requires monitoring them.
- On request from the owner of treated field crops, the operator must supply a written statement of six specified record elements within 40 days.
Oregon Pesticide Application Records
Why this is on the exam: Domain 5 of the outline — "State recordkeeping requirements" — has exactly two leaves: recordkeeping elements and retention time. That is a whole domain built on one statute (ORS 634.146) and one rule (OAR 603-057-0130). Learn the list and the number.
1. Who Must Keep Oregon Application Records
The state application-record requirement reaches:
- Commercial Pesticide Operators;
- Commercial Pesticide Applicators whose employer is not a pesticide operator;
- Public Pesticide Applicators;
- Pesticide Consultants conducting demonstration/research trials.
OAR 603-057-0130 extends the statutory duty and adds the identification requirements below. (Private applicators keep a different, federal USDA record set for RUPs — covered in the next section.)
2. The Required Elements
ORS 634.146(1) lists nine items. Records must be prepared and maintained on forms approved by ODA — but no specific ODA form is mandated; any legible hard-copy or digital format containing all required elements is acceptable.
| # | Required record information | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The name of the person for whom the pesticide was applied | Full name, address and phone of the business, firm or individual who owns or controls the crop or property. No initials, nicknames or partial names |
| 2 | The approximate location of the land or property | Address or geographic description — circle number, map, township/section/range, or GPS — and the size of the area treated (acres, square feet, linear feet) |
| 3 | The date and approximate time of application | Month/day/year, plus the beginning and ending time |
| 4 | The person who supplied the pesticides | Full name of the supplying individual or business |
| 5 | The trade name and the strength of the pesticides applied | The EPA registration number or the manufacturer, product name and formulation type of each product |
| 6 | The amount or concentration | (a) amount of each product per unit of measure; (b) type and amount of carrier per unit of measure, or total amount applied where no unit applies; (c) amount and type of other material applied — spreader/sticker, wetting agent, drift retardant |
| 7 | The specific property, crop or crops treated | Agricultural: the specific crop. Structural/general PCO work: the specific area (wall voids, kitchen cabinets, baseboards). Ornamental: the general area (front yard, hedge, fruit tree) |
| 8 | Summary information of the equipment, device or apparatus used | Aerosol can, speed sprayer, backpack sprayer, fogger, etc. — and, if applied by aircraft, the FAA "N" number |
| 9 | The names of the applicator(s), apprentice(s) or trainee(s) who made the application | Full name. When supervising an Apprentice or Trainee, record the full name and pesticide licence number of both the supervising applicator and the apprentice/trainee (OAR 603-057-0130(3)–(4)) |
3. Retention: Three Years
They must be available during business hours for review and inspection by ODA. Failing to prepare and maintain them is a prohibited act under ORS 634.372(5); falsifying them is a separate prohibited act under ORS 634.372(6).
[!IMPORTANT] There is no Oregon "record it within N days" deadline for operators. ORS 634.146 imposes no statutory clock for writing the record after the application — only the duty to prepare and maintain it and to produce it on inspection. (The 14-day deadline candidates half-remember is the federal USDA rule for private applicators' RUP records.) Good practice is still to complete the record the same day, while start/stop times and equipment settings are fresh.
4. Weather Data: Recommended, Not Required by ODA
Wind speed, wind direction, air temperature and soil temperature are not ODA-required record elements. The Addendum is explicit: "While not required under ODA rules, some pesticide labels require the applicator to measure wind speed, wind direction, air and soil temperature. It is suggested that if a label requires the applicator to monitor these conditions, they should be recorded in the application records."
That distinction matters twice over. First, on the exam: a question asking which item is not a mandatory Oregon element may well use weather data. Second, in the field: once a label requires you to monitor a condition, monitoring it becomes a label requirement, and recording it is your only evidence that you complied when a drift complaint arrives months later.
5. Reporting to the Owner of Treated Field Crops
ORS 634.146(3): on request from the owner of field crops that were treated, the pesticide operator must, within 40 days of the application, give or forward a written statement containing the information in elements 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 — who it was applied for, the location, date and time, trade name and strength, amount or concentration, and the specific crop.
6. Why Records Are Worth More Than Compliance
Complete records are the applicator's defence. In a drift complaint, the spray log — product, rate, equipment, nozzles, start and stop times — is what distinguishes a lawful application from a negligent one. In a suspected poisoning, the record and the SDS are what the treating physician needs. In a resistance investigation or a residue detection, the three-year history shows the rotation you actually ran. Applicators who treat the log as paperwork lose all three arguments.
Under ORS 634.146, how long must Oregon pesticide operators and applicators keep their application records, and when must they be available?
Which of the following is NOT a required element of an Oregon pesticide application record under ORS 634.146 and OAR 603-057-0130?
The owner of a treated field crop asks the pesticide operator in writing for information about the application. Under ORS 634.146(3), what must the operator do?