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PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 04-2187

NOTICES

DEPARTMENT
OF AGRICULTURE

Partial Revocation of Plum Pox Virus Quarantine

[34 Pa.B. 6557]

Recitals

   1.  The Plant Pest Act (act) (3 P. S. §§ 258.1--258.27), empowers the Department of Agriculture (Department) to take various measures to detect, contain and eradicate plant pests in this Commonwealth.

   2.  The powers granted the Department under section 21 of the act (3 P. S. § 258.21) include the power to establish quarantines to prevent the dissemination of plant pests within this Commonwealth.

   3.  Plum Pox Virus (PPV) is a serious nonnative plant pest that injures and damages stone fruits such as peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots by drastically reducing the fruit yields from these stone fruit trees and by disfiguring the fruit to the point it is unmarketable and has been detected in certain areas of this Commonwealth.

   4.  The Department has exercised its authority under the act and issued several Orders of Quarantine affecting portions of Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and York Counties in an effort to contain, identify and eradicate PPV.

   5.  The Department is satisfied it is appropriate to rescind the Order of Quarantine applicable to Washington Township, York County, since 3 consecutive years of extensive testing have failed to detect the presence of PPV among stone fruit trees in this area.

Order

   Under authority of section 21 of the act, the Department hereby enters the following order:

   The portion of the Order of Quarantine dated June 22, 2001, and published at 31 Pa.B. 3560 (July 7, 2001) that pertains to Washington Township, York County, is hereby rescinded. This Order had imposed a quarantine on all properties in Franklin Township and Washington Township, both in York County, to facilitate the containment and eradication of PPV and to make the affected stone fruit tree owners eligible for reimbursement of certain costs related to the destruction of stone fruit trees, herbicide applications, insect control measures and other PPV eradication activities under the Department's Commercial Orchard and Fruit Tree Indemnity Program and the Department's Plum Pox Noncommercial Prunus Tree and Landscape Nursery Prunus Tree Indemnity Program. All PPV-infected stone fruit trees and all stone fruit trees within 500 meters of the infected trees have since been removed from the quarantined locations, and the owners of those trees compensated for the losses attendant to this removal. Three consecutive years of intensive sampling and testing stone fruit leaves in Washington Township, York County, have not yielded any additional positive detections of PPV. Therefore, the Washington Township locations covered by the referenced June 22, 2001, Order of Quarantine are no longer considered a potential reservoir of the PPV virus, and as a result can be considered free of PPV. The location hereby released from quarantine is as follows:

   All properties and land located in Washington Township, York County, PA.

   The referenced quarantine order of June 22, 2001, shall remain in full force and effect with respect to Franklin Township, York County.

   The Department will consult with the United States Department of Agriculture, European experts and scientific authorities with respect to the most efficacious measures by which to contain and eliminate this serious plant pest. The Department will issue further restrictions under authority of this Quarantine Order, as is required under section 21(a) of the act. These restrictions may address aphid control, elimination or reduction of aphid habitat, destruction of PPV-infected stone fruit trees and budwood, destruction of endangered or exposed stone fruit trees or budwood and any other measures necessary to the containment and elimination of the PPV in this Commonwealth.

   This quarantine is effective as of November 19, 2004, and shall remain in effect until terminated by subsequent order.

DENNIS C WOLFF,   
Secretary

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 04-2187. Filed for public inspection December 10, 2004, 9:00 a.m.]


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