For Immediate Release: Friday, May 3, 2019
Court reverses Circuit Court’s 2017 ruling that struck down measure
ROCKVILLE, Md., May 3, 2019—The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Thursday sided with Montgomery County, reversing the Circuit Court’s ruling that invalidated the County’s 2015 law banning the application of certain dangerous pesticides to lawns for cosmetic purposes.
The court sent the case back to the lower court and directed it to enter a judgment in the County’s favor.
“This is a big win for our environment and the public health,” said Councilmember Tom Hucker, chairman of the Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee and one of the bill’s lead sponsors, along with then-Councilmembers George Leventhal and Marc Elrich. “It also affirms our County’s authority to protect our residents, especially our kids, from the harmful threats that pesticides and other environmental toxins can pose.”
“This court decision is a great victory for our County’s public health and environment,” said County Council President Nancy Navarro. “We must not relent in exercising our right to enact sensible legislation that protects our residents from harm. As president of the County Council, I will continue to work with my colleagues to make our County a healthy place for all our residents to live, work and play.”
“The Supreme Court held in 1991 that the principal federal law governing pesticides permits such local legislation,” the court wrote. “We conclude that the ordinance does not run afoul of State law.”
In its decision, the Court of Special Appeals cited the late Rachel Carson of Silver Spring and her groundbreaking book “Silent Spring,” published in 1962, which led to a ban of the toxic pesticide DDT.
“Carson’s examination of the health impacts of DDT and other pesticides galvanized the public, and the next decade saw Congress enact a broad range of statutes that are foundational to modern environmental law,” the court wrote. “Montgomery County claims, in essence, that it is following in these footsteps, but we must determine whether it has done so consistently with State law.”
After the County Council passed the law in 2015, it was sued by a group of homeowners and landscaping companies, which claimed that the County law should be struck down because it banned pesticides that had been approved by the federal government.
In August 2017, the Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, calling the law an example of overreach by the County.
The County appealed the lower court ruling to the Court of Special Appeals.
The law acknowledges that while certain pesticides can be useful in agriculture and when protecting some natural resources, they also contain dangerous toxins and should not be applied for solely cosmetic purposes, such as on lawns. The law does allow pesticides to be applied to farmland, golf courses and gardens, and does not prohibit their sale in the County.
The Court of Special Appeals found that “state law does not expressly pre-empt local government regulation of pesticides.”
It also rejected the lower court’s finding that allowing individual jurisdictions to establish their own pesticide regulations could cause “chaos and confusion in the marketplace”:
“For decades, Maryland’s Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Critical Area Protection Program has authorized certain counties to regulate pesticides within the Critical Area without any record of chaos and confusion for multi-tiered regulation,” the court wrote.
It also said that while the state’s pesticide statutes reference conformance with federal legislation, this is “best regarded as an aspirational goal, rather than an obstacle to local legislation.”
The court’s ruling is here:
https://www.courts.state.md.us/data/opinions/cosa/2019/1203s17.pdf
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Release ID: 19-152