A Salinas-based agricultural company has resolved a case brought by the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office alleging it violated pesticide laws and exposed its employees to harmful chemicals, prosecutors said.

The Environmental Protection Unit of the District Attorney’s Office alleged that The Growers Company allowed its employees to enter a lettuce field on Oct. 9, 2023, despite pesticide warning signs.

The company has been ordered to pay $125,194 in civil penalties and is barred from violating pesticide requirements in the future.

The Growers Company is a privately run family business established in 1950 that harvests produce, according to its website. It has offices in Salinas and in Arizona. “Our workers are our family and our customers are our responsibility,” reads the “About” section on the site.

A supervisor at the company allegedly ordered 93 fieldworkers into an area that had been treated with various pesticides less than a day earlier. According to prosecutors, the pesticide used was Sivanto Prime, which has a 24-hour restricted entry interval in which no one is allowed on the field.

Sixty-six fieldworkers allegedly developed symptoms consistent with exposure to pesticides, including nausea, dizziness, headache, and irritation to the throat, nose, eyes, and skin.

“Moreover, despite legal requirements to take all exposed employees to a physician for medical care, Growers only took 34 of the exposed employees to a physician for evaluation,” the District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

A felony criminal charge was also filed against the Growers’ supervisor who ordered the employees into the field, but he has since died, prosecutors said.

The Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office investigated the case and referred it to the District Attorney’s Office as a “priority investigation” because the event caused over five people to become ill, according to prosecutors.

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.