Public Act 096-1005
 
HB6099 Enrolled LRB096 20722 JDS 36455 b

    AN ACT concerning agriculture.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Lawn Care Products Application and Notice
Act is amended by changing Sections 2 and 7 and adding Sections
5a and 9 as follows:
 
    (415 ILCS 65/2)  (from Ch. 5, par. 852)
    Sec. 2. Definitions.
    For purposes of this Act:
    "Application" means the spreading of lawn care products on
a lawn.
    "Applicator for hire" means any person who makes an
application of lawn care products to a lawn or lawns for
compensation, including applications made by an employee to
lawns owned, occupied or managed by his employer and includes
those licensed by the Department as licensed commercial
applicators, commercial not-for-hire applicators, licensed
public applicators, certified applicators and licensed
operators and those otherwise subject to the licensure
provisions of the Illinois Pesticide Act, as now or hereafter
amended.
    "Buffer" means an area adjacent to a body of water that is
left untreated with any fertilizer.
    "Day care center" means any facility that qualifies as a
"day care center" under the Child Care Act of 1969.
    "Department" means the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
    "Department of Public Health" means the Illinois
Department of Public Health.
    "Facility" means a building or structure and appurtenances
thereto used by an applicator for hire for storage and handling
of pesticides or the storage or maintenance of pesticide
application equipment or vehicles.
    "Fertilizer" means any substance containing nitrogen,
phosphorus or potassium or other recognized plant nutrient or
compound, which is used for its plant nutrient content.
    "Golf course" means an area designated for the play or
practice of the game of golf, including surrounding grounds,
trees, ornamental beds and the like.
    "Golf course superintendent" means any person entrusted
with and employed for the care and maintenance of a golf
course.
    "Impervious surface" means any structure, surface, or
improvement that reduces or prevents absorption of stormwater
into land, and includes pavement, porous paving, paver blocks,
gravel, crushed stone, decks, patios, elevated structures, and
other similar structures, surfaces, or improvements.
    "Lawn" means land area covered with turf kept closely mown
or land area covered with turf and trees or shrubs. The term
does not include (1) land area used for research for
agricultural production or for the commercial production of
turf, (2) land area situated within a public or private
right-of-way, or (3) land area which is devoted to the
production of any agricultural commodity, including, but not
limited to plants and plant parts, livestock and poultry and
livestock or poultry products, seeds, sod, shrubs and other
products of agricultural origin raised for sale or for human or
livestock consumption.
    "Lawn care products" means fertilizers or pesticides
applied or intended for application to lawns.
    "Lawn repair products" means seeds, including seeding
soils, that contain or are coated with or encased in fertilizer
material.
    "Person" means any individual, partnership, association,
corporation or State governmental agency, school district,
unit of local government and any agency thereof.
    "Pesticide" means any substance or mixture of substances
defined as a pesticide under the Illinois Pesticide Act, as now
or hereafter amended.
    "Plant protectants" means any substance or material used to
protect plants from infestation of insects, fungi, weeds and
rodents, or any other substance that would benefit the overall
health of plants.
    "Soil test" means a chemical and mechanical analysis of
soil nutrient values and pH level as it relates to the soil and
development of a lawn.
    "Spreader" means any commercially available fertilizing
device used to evenly distribute fertilizer material.
    "Turf" means the upper stratum of soils bound by grass and
plant roots into a thick mat.
    "0% phosphate fertilizer" means a fertilizer that contains
no more than 0.67% available phosphoric acid (P2O5).
(Source: P.A. 96-424, eff. 8-13-09.)
 
    (415 ILCS 65/5a new)
    Sec. 5a. Fertilizer; application restrictions.
    (a) No applicator for hire shall:
        (1) Apply phosphorus-containing fertilizer to a lawn,
    except as demonstrated to be necessary by a soil test that
    establishes that the soil is lacking in phosphorous when
    compared against the standard established by the
    University of Illinois. The soil test required under this
    paragraph (1) shall be conducted no more than 36 months
    before the intended application of the fertilizer and by a
    soil testing laboratory that has been identified by the
    University of Illinois as an acceptable laboratory for soil
    testing. However, a soil test shall not be required under
    this paragraph (1) if the fertilizer to be applied is a 0%
    phosphate fertilizer or the fertilizer is being applied to
    establish a lawn in the first 2 growing seasons.
        (2) Apply fertilizer to an impervious surface, except
    where the application is inadvertent and fertilizer is
    swept or blown back into the target area or returned to
    either its original or another appropriate container for
    reuse.
        (3) Apply fertilizer using a spray, drop, or rotary
    spreader with a deflector within a 3 foot buffer of any
    water body, except that when this equipment is not used,
    fertilizer may not be applied within a 15 foot buffer of
    any water body.
        (4) Apply fertilizer at any time when the lawn is
    frozen or saturated. For the purposes of this paragraph
    (4), a lawn is frozen when its root system is frozen
    (typically 3 or 4 inches down), and a lawn is saturated
    when it bears ample evidence of being or having been
    inundated by standing water.
    (b) This Section does not apply to the application of
fertilizer on property used in the operation of a commercial
farm, lands classified as agricultural lands, or golf courses.
    (c) This Section does not apply to the application of lawn
repair products.
    (d) Paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of this Section does
not apply to the application of animal or vegetable manure that
is ground, pelletized, mechanically dried, packaged, or
supplemented with plant nutrients or other substances other
than phosphorus.
 
    (415 ILCS 65/7)  (from Ch. 5, par. 857)
    Sec. 7. When an administrative hearing is held by the
Department, the hearing officer, upon determination of any
violation of this Act or rule or regulation, shall either refer
the violation to the States Attorney's office in the county
where the alleged violation occurred for prosecution or levy
the following administrative monetary penalties:
        (a) a penalty of $250 $100 for a first violation;
        (b) a penalty of $500 $200 for a second violation; and
        (c) a penalty of $1,000 $500 for a third or subsequent
    violation.
    The penalty levied shall be collected by the Department,
and all penalties collected by the Department under this Act
shall be deposited into the Pesticide Control Fund. Any penalty
not paid within 60 days of notice from the Department shall be
submitted to the Attorney General's office for collection.
    Upon prosecution by a State's Attorney, a violation of this
Act or rules shall be a petty offense subject to a fine of $250
$100 for a first offense, a fine of $500 $200 for a second
offense and a fine of $1,000 $500 for a third or subsequent
offense.
(Source: P.A. 86-358; 87-1033.)
 
    (415 ILCS 65/9 new)
    Sec. 9. Home rule.
    (a) On and after the effective date of this amendatory Act
of the 96th General Assembly, a unit of local government may
not regulate fertilizer in a manner more restrictive than the
regulation of fertilizer by the State under this Act, unless
the Department of Agriculture determines that a proposed
ordinance of a unit of local government is reasonable under the
specific circumstances based on standards that the Department
shall adopt by rule. This Section is a limitation under
subsection (i) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois
Constitution on the concurrent exercise by home rule units of
powers and functions exercised by the State.
    (b) Subsection (a) of this Section shall not apply to any
local ordinance or regulation in effect before the effective
date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly.
 
    (415 ILCS 65/8 rep.)
    Section 10. The Lawn Care Products Application and Notice
Act is amended by repealing Section 8.
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July 1,
2010.

Effective Date: 07/06/2010