IPTD-94
Pesticide Use Surveys Application
Description
There is a need to automate the generation of Pesticide Use Surveys of the licensed regulated community. Currently, we mail out surveys and results recieved via mail and enter manually into Access databases. Surveys for all six survery categories total around 14,000. Since the surveys are completed via paper by the regulated community, and the data is manually entered by DEP, the following problems occur:
(1) There is no web connection for external partners to DEP's Pesticide Application System database (PAS). Which means there is no automated way to enter survey data or contact information for the licensed regulated community. It's a manual process. Very time consuming!!!
(2) There is no web form containing drop-down menus with standardized choices. So the pesticide community can write anything they want on the hard copy version of the survey. This requires follow up time from DEP staff when contacting someone to verify/clarify information. The pesticide community sometimes writes in responses that don't make sense!
(3) The pesticde community is unable to update contact related information via an online solution. Forcing DEP staff to manually track and update contract related information. Makes it difficult to keep an up to date contact list.
(4) Dealing with a large volume of pesticide surveys increases the liklihood of data entry and transcription mistakes.
(5) Pesticide Trend Charts are used to make reglatory decisions. But each survey category can only be sent out once every three years due to volume. So decisions are currently being made on data collected every three years instead of every year.
Due to the limited resources and the labor required for survey mailings, each of the six survey categories (Agriculture, Mosquito, Lawn Care, Structural, Right-of-Way, Golf Course) are conducted once every three years rather then annually. The lack of a database web driven system to record this data from external partners lead to data entry/transcription errors, and incomplete surveys when mailed back to DEP.
Project Justification
The six pesticide use regulated categories represent the survey types that are conducted on a pre-defined fixed schedule. On very rare occasions, the Pesticide Control group has been asked to perform specialty type surveys such as fumigant surveys. In situations like this, such a request is not part of the typical survey schedule and are brought to the program’s attention with short notice (months). Though this is rare, DEP and RU shall discuss how to best handle these types of unexpected situations.
All statewide pesticide use surveys are performed under the authority of the NJ Pesticide Control Code, N.J.A.C. 7:30-1 et. seq., requiring applicators to maintain pesticide records for three years (five years for termite treatments) and to submit pesticide use records to the state when requested.
The goal is to integrate all six pesticide use surveys into one cohesive data management system. All data will reside in one centralized database and be organized and displayed via a password protected URL location hosted through RU.
This system will be broken down into two components. The first being a front-end website which shall include web forms representing each of the six NJ Pesticide Use Surveys. This password protected front-end website shall be the strategy used by the pesticide community for entering their survey result data and any contact information related changes. The second piece of this system shall be an Administration Portal. The Administration Portal will be a DEP tool for minimizing reliance on RU for handling daily data management related tasks. The Portal will enable Administrators of the Pesticide’s system via web forms, to manage daily tasks, activities, and settings within the Pesticide Use Survey System’s relational database.
The completion of pesticide use surveys are dependent on a large pesticide use community. Approximately 18,000 applicators over a three-year period are required to complete some combination of the six pesticide use surveys. It will be essential to make the six pesticide use survey web forms as easy and ‘bullet proof’ as possible to ensure DEP is getting a high compliance rate of survey completion. The ability for the DEP to manage and control the abundance of pesticide respondents will be critical to the success of this system.
A No Cost Time Extension amendment was submitted. Work to begin picking up in the next month or two.
This Rutgers based project will be kicking off on 1/22/25.
This project was initially delayed until sometime in 2025. Since then, we have learned that the Rutgers team that we specifically work with was moved to a different department within the university which provides them with a large pool of technical staff. There is a chance the timeline will be accelerated, and we can begin this project sometime this Fall.
Project kickoff date for this was set to begin 7/1/24. This project will be delayed by 6 months so that Rutgers can begin on the WRM Data Management for Project System that is running very far behind. The WRM Data Management for Project Data was a priority by AC Gardner and that is the reason for the change.
Contract agreement with Rutgers University is complete. Work to start on 7/1/24. Approximately one year of development time is expected. Project to go live 6/30/25.
The contract agreement has been revised, and the first part of DEP signatures have been obtained. The contract agreement was sent to Rutgers University on 7/18/23 to get RU signatures. The document will then be sent back to DEP for final DEP signatures which execute the contract.
For this project, Rutgers has changed their Indirect Rate from 10% to 26% before the project was finalized. This threw off all the budget numbers and total cost of project. Therefore, I need to resubmit an updated spending plan and start the contract agreement process over with the updated budget numbers.
Mike K waiting to hear back form Rutgers on pricing/schedule.
Sent Rutgers University a draft proposal/design document (see attached) for review and official quote price on 9/14/22.
Posed question to Kurt/John Smith if its possible to have PAS database automatically output an electronic file of applicator licenses and contact information. Then provide the access for RU to grab that information every night to have code compare and update the RU hosted db and update accordingly.