Question
Hello,
   I have a neighbor who is none to nice.  He has severely oversprayed his property fence line with some sort of herbicide which has resulted in a good portion of my side of the fence line being killed and the rainwater runoff has created a dead zone in the root zone of my apple tree. At the same time, he sprayed the same herbicide on a branch (1 1/2 inches) of the apple tree.  I have contacted the Dept of Agriculture.  I was wondering what penalties you would say could be levied against his blatant misuse of the herbicide.  Also, would you be concerned about the safety of eating the fruit this year?

Answer
Hi Clyde, One of the first statements on a pesticide label is "It is a violation of Federal Law to use this product inconsistent with it's labeling".  The problem arises when you try to determine whether there was intent to do harm or if it was just a careless accident. Penalties vary by state, so it's going to depend on your local laws and how aggressively you want to pursue it. If your neighbor has no history of similar events, he'd probably get no more than a warning.
Most herbicides are absorbed and move through the plant, so if the tree survives, I probably would not eat the fruit this year. If you want to go to the expense, you could send some of the fruit to a local laboratory and have them tested for residue.  Your cost would be less if you know which herbicide to test for versus testing for them all.  Jim