22-2210. INSPECTION — SAMPLING — ANALYSIS. (1) The department shall inspect, sample, analyze and test soil amendments or plant amendments distributed within this state at a time and place and to an extent as it deems necessary to determine whether the soil amendments or plant amendments comply with this chapter. The department may stop any commercial vehicle transporting soil amendments or plant amendments on the public highways and direct it to the nearest scales approved by the department to check weights of soil amendments or plant amendments being delivered or to take samples of the product being transported. Also, the department may, upon presentation of proper identification, enter any distributor’s premises, including any vehicle of transport, at all reasonable times in order to have access to soil amendments or plant amendments and to records relating to their distribution.

(2) The methods of sampling and analysis shall be those adopted by the department from officially recognized sources, such as, but not limited to, the association of American plant food control officials (AAPFCO) and the association of official analytical chemists, international (AOAC).

(3) In determining for administrative purposes whether a soil amendment or plant amendment is deficient in any component, the department shall be guided solely by the official sample as defined in section 22-2203(24), Idaho Code, and obtained and analyzed as provided for in this section.

(4) When the inspection and analysis of an official sample has been made, the department shall forward the results of the analysis to the distributor and manufacturer, and to the purchaser upon written request. Upon written request and within thirty (30) days of the results of analysis, the department shall furnish to the distributor and/or manufacturer a portion of the sample concerned.

(5) If the analyses of samples made by the department indicate deficiencies in the soil amendments or plant amendments examined, below guaranteed analysis and in excess of the tolerances specified in rules adopted under this chapter, the department shall immediately notify the manufacturer and/or distributor of the soil amendments or plant amendments of the results of the analyses. The manufacturer or distributor of the soil amendments or plant amendments may, upon written request, obtain from the department a portion of the sample(s) in question. If the manufacturer or distributor does not agree with the analyses of the department, he may request an umpire who shall be one (1) of a list of not less than three (3) public analysts recognized by the department to have the requisite ability in soil amendments, plant amendments or fertilizer analyses, who shall be named by the department. The umpire analyses shall be made at the expense of the manufacturer or distributor requesting the umpire analyses. If the umpire agrees more closely with the department, the figures of the department shall be considered correct. If the umpire agrees more closely with the figures of the manufacturer or distributor, then the figures of the manufacturer or distributor shall be considered correct.

(6) Analysis of an official sample by the department shall be accepted as prima facie evidence by any court of competent jurisdiction.

History:

[22-2210, added 2001, ch. 250, sec. 3, p. 910.]