ELLSWORTH — The recent discovery of an herbicide in Down East ground-water supplies and the revision to public notification rules for aerial pesticide use are among topics that will be discussed at a business meeting of the Maine Board of Pesticides Control at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 4, in the Acadia Room at the Holiday Inn. BPC meetings are open to the public.

At the request of the Maine Blueberry Commission, the regulatory agency will hear a presentation on recent detections of Velpar, a herbicide used in the production of blueberries, in several Down East wells.

Representatives of the commission, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Du Pont Agriculture Program, Maine Department of Agriculture, Maine Drinking Water Program and the BPC staff will discuss the latest findings and actions under way to mitigate further contamination.

Also slated on this meeting’s agenda are: review of a proposed regulation to relax current public notification rules when pesticides applied by aircraft for nonagricultural purposes meet lower-risk criteria; and consideration of three special local-need requests to expand the use of two potato-blight fungicides and a granular hexazinone herbicide to control weeds in blueberry fields.

The public is urged to contact the BPC direction for information about an alternate meeting date in the event of weather-related cancellation.