As Ventura County farmers prepare for the summer growing season, they are grappling with a new regulation that dramatically reduces the amount of fumigants available.

Farmers are finding out this month the amount of fumigants they will be allowed to use on their crops. New regulations now limit the amount in an effort to improve air quality.

Farmers asked to use an amount of fumigants that would produce 2.4 million pounds of volatile organic compound emissions, which contribute to pollution. But under the new rules, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation said this week that only 734,000 pounds of VOC emissions would be permitted, less than a third of what was requested.

Some say farmers may struggle with the new rules but will ultimately learn to adjust.

"It's going to be tough," said Oxnard berry farmer Bill Reiman. "It's just one more thing to deal with, but we'll make it work."

But Rob Roy, president of the Ventura County Agricultural Association, said some will have problems turning a profit under the new rules.

"I don't think you can make the assumption across the board that agriculture is magically going to adapt to the regulations all at once," he said.

The new restrictions affect the May through October growing season, when fumigants such as methyl bromide are more likely to cause pollution during the warmer summer. Emissions from fumigants can lead to the formation of smog, which causes respiratory illnesses. But fumigants are also one of the most potent tools in a farmer's arsenal, cleansing the soil of disease and pests before planting.

20 percent reduction

A federal court order mandates farmers reduce pollution from fumigants by 20 percent of 1991 levels. Instead of the gradual shift toward tighter restrictions that farmers lobbied for, the move toward fewer pesticides took place immediately this year.

Farmers requested this year a higher amount of allocated emissions, about 40 percent more than in previous years. The request was more than three times what DPR ultimately allowed.

Many asked for such a high allotment because they weren't sure which method they would use to apply fumigants; some methods require more fumigants to denude the soil of bugs and disease, others require less.

Reiman said farmers can be unsure about how many fumigants they will need six months away, so they request the upper limits of what they may need.

DPR spokesman Glenn Brank said farmers incorporating new application techniques should be able to adjust to the reduced levels.

"It's easy to jump to a conclusion that this is a disaster situation, but quite emphatically it is not," he said.

Work done before May 1

DPR estimates that if methyl bromide use is curbed, other nonpolluting fumigants are used, they are used outside the restricted time and less-polluting application practices are implemented, then farmers could still plant as many acres and meet the new regulations.

But if farmers do not adopt new practices and continue to rely heavily on methyl bromide and other pollutants, there is a chance that as many as 4,900 acres will go unfumigated.

Reiman and other farmers said they are fumigating their crops before the May 1 deadline so they don't fall under the new regulations. But that could be a gamble if the planting doesn't happen for a few months after the process.

Onus is on the growers'

Brent Newell, a lawyer representing a handful of environmental groups that won the suit to enact tighter air quality restrictions, said farmers can find a way to have cleaner air and productive crops.

"It's up to them to decide what combination of practices they want to employ and at the same time deliver clean air to the residents of Ventura County," Newell said. "The onus is on the growers to find those ways."

Scott Deardorff, who has about 500 acres of tomatoes in Oxnard, said farmers are always looking for ways to curb their pesticide use, in part because it saves money. He said the new rules are going to affect farmers' bottom line, either by loss of productivity or fewer acres being planted.

"I have my doubts that the acreage will stay the same, but time will tell," he said.

An array of legal and other challenges to the new regulations are still pending, including a court appeal next month. Roy plans to ask later this month for a motion to stay the regulations.

The secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency recently sent a letter to the federal EPA asking that the new restrictions be phased in slowly to allow farmers time to adjust.

"The bottom line is this regulation is a bad regulation, and we agree with the secretary of the California EPA that it should be changed," said Rick Tomlinson, director of public policy for the California Strawberry Commission.

But while the new rules are in place, Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail said, farmers are figuring out how to make do with what they have been allotted.

"Most of them have already adjusted to one way or another," he said.

Farming in an area with a dense population and high land prices is always a challenge.

"In Ventura County, it's the nature of the beast," he said.