Following up on a meeting last week that ended without a formal decision on how to reimburse Green Mountain Compost customers whose crops have been damaged by contaminated compost products, the Chittenden Solid Waste District Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, July 25. This time they voted out a provisional plan.
With a newly trained group of field technicians a week into gathering data from site visits to gardens whose owners have reported possible damage, the commissioners set parameters that could cost the public facility over $900,000. CSWD had already issued a recall of all products and begun a buyback plan for retail outlets that carried their products.
The “customer assistance package,” which will not go into effect until there has been a final legal review, will require evidence of the specific effects of the persistent herbicides clopyralid and picloram, found in broadleaf herbicides sold by Dow Agrosciences that are, in the case of picloram, not to be used in Vermont unless the application is registered with the state. Home gardeners will also have to provide proof of purchase of GMC compost between Jan. 1 of this year and June 27. Refunds are likely to include tax and delivery costs, the cost of materials and a per-cubic yard or per-bag reimbursement intended to compensate customers for the cost of seed, plants, materials, labor and produce.
Between 300 and 400 reports have already been filed with CSWD, but customers who have seen the distinctive shrunken and curled leaves on their tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, beans, peas or sunflowers and not yet reported the damage to Green Mountain Compost must fill in the online Form for Reporting Abnormal Plant Growth on the site. Gardeners who believe they see signs of persistent herbicide damage from whatever source and commercial growers whose crops appear to be affected should report damage to Cary Giguere at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.
The Green Mountain Compost website has a regularly updated factsheet.
