Alabama § 45-58-170 - Permitting the Application of Chemical Substances by Aircraft.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to spray or dust any poisonous substance or chemical that is injurious to wildlife, plant life, or aquatic life over, upon, onto, or in any forest or timberland in Shelby County by the use of aircraft.

(b)(1) Provided, however, this section shall not apply to any application of any material whether from the air or ground, the primary purpose of which is to control mosquitoes, eradicate fire ants, or other insects considered to be harmful by the state Department of Agriculture and Industries.

(2) Provided further that this section shall not apply to any spraying or dusting application of any material, whether from air or ground, to cropland or pasture land, which primary purpose was to improve or enhance the production of food, cotton, or like crops.

(3) Provided further that this section shall not apply to the application, whether from the air or ground, by a utility regulated by the Alabama Public Service Commission, or its agents, of any chemical substances registered under the Alabama Pesticide Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, to any cleared or cut-over right-of-way for electric transmission lines designed to operate at 44,000 volts or higher, the primary purpose of which is to control brush or other vegetation on the utility’s right-of-way. Provided, further, that any chemical substances shall be applied under the direction of a certified applicator under applicable federal and state laws and that the application of the chemical substances shall be in accordance with the label directions to insure safety to humans, livestock, and wildlife; and provided, further, that the utility or its agents when applying the chemical substances from the air shall provide a minimum 100 foot buffer for any house, orchard, croplands, or church.

(4) Aerial spraying shall be permitted on distribution line rights-of-way in remote and uninhabited areas where there is no dwelling, orchard, croplands, church, or highway within 100 feet of the distribution line. For the purposes of this section a distribution line means any electric line designed to operate at voltages of less than 44,000 volts. The same restrictions as this section requires with respect to spraying of transmission line rights-of-way shall be applicable for the spraying of distribution line rights-of-way.