BANGOR – Environmentalists squared off against some of the state’s largest blueberry growers Thursday over whether the Board of Pesticides Control should ban aerial spraying and prohibit the use of some particularly powerful pesticides.

“I just feel like it’s shooting a fruit fly with a cannon,” said Joan McMurray, an organic blueberry farmer in Columbia who testified in favor of both restrictions, which together would mark a major change in the way many commercial growers operate in Maine.

Some farmers view the chemicals in question, known as organophosphates, as an effective line of defense against infestation or disease. At the crowded hearing Tuesday, some testified they need to have the chemicals available.

“We need this option … and it’s the best option available at this time,” said Ivan Hanscom, a wild blueberry farmer from Marshfield. “Our customers will not tolerate any bugs in their fruit.”

In January, Environment Maine and the Toxics Action Center submitted about 600 signatures to trigger the hearings, which began Thursday at the Bangor Motor Inn.

The hearings, which will continue today beginning at 8:30 a.m., will focus on three potential rule changes – the aerial spraying ban, the prohibition of certain pesticides, and increased public access to spraying schedules.

Will Everitt of the Toxics Action Center began the testimony with an appeal to the board to end aerial spraying, a practice he said causes dangerous pesticides to drift for up to a mile into neighboring fields and streams.

“Most of us in this room believe that no one should be exposed to pesticides who don’t want to be and that our environment and health should be protected,” Everitt said.

But, based on the testimony, there was little common ground in the room, particularly on how to best manage the state’s blueberry crops.

Aerial spraying, some farmers said, is a safe and necessary option to prevent ground equipment from doing major damage to the soft fields.

Among those farmers was Ed Flanagan, president of Jasper Wyman and Sons – one of the state’s largest blueberry growers. He asked the board to reject the proposed rule changes, calling them “a naive and hysterical approach petitioned for by environmental extremists.”

Federal law generally regulates the use of pesticides, and the board, which could change the rules without legislative action, has been hesitant to place additional burdens on farmers and other applicators who are following state and federal laws.

The debate actually began hours before Tuesday’s hearing when representatives from three groups – Environment Maine, the Maine Environmental Policy Institute and Toxics Action Center – released a report on the effects of pesticides on already declining Atlantic salmon populations in Down East rivers.

“For their survival and recovery it is essential we make these changes,” said MEPI director Will Sugg, one of the authors of the report, which calls for an outright ban on aerial spraying as well as certain older – and more toxic – pesticides.

But the 30-page report acknowledges a lack of data on the industry’s impact on the salmon, and calls for more extensive testing of pesticide toxicity.

“We are left to speculate about possible dangers without having the information to accurately assess these threats,” the report states, before concluding: “Regardless, the blueberry industry has a legal obligation, along with other industries and agencies, to help protect the endangered Atlantic salmon.”