Most herbicides tend to breakdown in the environment rather rapidly. As long as your garden was not affected by spray drift, I doubt you have much to be concerned about.

FWIW, in my area, the power company will mow brush, top or remove trees and occasionally spray along the powerline right of way (public property) but they are not permitted to do any of this on private property without owner permission and/or advance notice. Are you sure the powerlines are located on YOUR property and not on an easement (which allows free access, just like public land)?

My electric company sends out a letter notifying homeowners when they will be clearing under the power lines.

I call them in advance and request that they not spray near my property.

My electric company has been great about it. They have been wonderful about working with me to see which trees need to be cut and which we can save.

In the future, you may want to call them and see when they plan to be in your area.

My land & easement.
I am not selling my fruits,But if I was & lost that right, because of spraying to close to my crops.
Then the PC would be at fault, no easement give anyone the right to hurt someones lively hood.
You are probably right about the break down of the herbicides.
I still think they could have put a notice in last months bill.

Utility easements give the power company the right to maintain that land as they deem necessary for free access. If there is brush, weeds, trees, etc. that interfer with their access, then they have the right to clear out the area using whatever methods they want.

While most power companies are usually cooperative in working with homeowners on how they go about doing this, especially with regards to spraying, you need to be a bit proactive. Notify them that you are attempting to be organic and don't want any herbicides/pesticides sprayed along your easement OR keep it clear yourself.

WOW- rlv4 do you own a power company?
gardengal48, as always you are right, I just think they should have sent out a notice.
A notice that they are changing from cutting bush to spraying bush.
Then I could have called & said that I would cut the easements or put up with what was cheater for the PC.
I pay rates to & have stocks in this PC & would not want it to lose money or have large over head.
I will miss all the free wood chips for composting.
I am not really worried, because I do not sale my fruit.
I open this thread, so anyone who did , could act.
Some of my young sassafras slapping, on easement, are at a good walking stick size.I will cut them after they cure a
little & carve them, this winter.

My power company sent a notice and marked the trees to cut and trim. Then when they showed up they sprayed the whole back line of my property and killed everything. The vegetation is low growing and several hundred feet from the power lines. This is kind of enenvironmental destruction is unnecessary. They would rather kill my family with chemicals than have to pay a guy to trim it. This is not right.

Gardengal48 is wrong about a easement being public property. If the powerlines are on your property it's still your private property. The power company has a easement so that the power company employees only can come onto your property that they have a easement to to keep the brush clear and work on powerlines. NOBODY else as far as the PUBLIC has the right to come ONTO your property. I also have property that the power company has a easement on that I keep posted signs on so that everyone else knows it's not PUBLIC property. I had to post my property to keep people riding their 4 wheelers on and damaging my property because obviously not everyone understands that this is NOT public property just because the powerlines run across it.

Someone needs to bone up on their reading comprehension!! At NO time did I say that an easement was "public property"!! There are all kinds of easements for all kinds of purposes. All an easement does is allow someone other than the property owner access to the property without being subject to trespass. In this case it is the power company but easements can exist that allows a road or driveway to cross the property, provide beach or lake access and of course for various utility companies to lay and/or maintain their lines and services.

I love how these Johnny-come-latelys butt in 10 years down the road to make their first and only comment on this platform on a topic that was long ago resolved and manage to do so in error as well!!

When a person has no hands on knowledge, they assume a lot of thing not true.

Even google is one dimensional, wisdom comes from experience, that take time & effort.

Some people never get off the couch & find out what real life is all about.

I have a powerline easement & a drive way easement, the driveway is public use, but both are still my property.

Even public streets are easements. The property owners on either side of the street have fee simple title to the center of the street. May not apply in all states. And public officials try to steal this. I would say tho that the only way this may become relevant is for mining under the actual street, think diamonds, or if the street should be abandoned

Once again......PLEASE LEARN HOW TO READ before you jump in and make erroneous accusations!! I never said an easement was public property. What I did say was that some utility or power company right of ways ARE public property. Or at least not owned by private individuals. Do you not know what the differences are??

"learn the facts about something before opening your mouth and also actually read what your replying to. If you don't understand what something says it's best to keep your mouth shut."

Excellent advice that YOU should follow...especially the part about actually reading what you are replying to.

Sheesh!! Where do these yo-yos come from and why are they always so rude and obnoxious?

PATRIOT COUNTRY I read your post, & you misread it your self or you are a troll. Either way you are wrong & not worth any more of my time.

I live on a private road in rural Virginia and was thinking of using the cleared area underneath the powerlines for a garden. Most land in my area is forest, so pre-cleared land with sun is hard to come by. A couple of years back they came through and mowed down everything under their power lines, a 40 ft swath. If it was a tree or bush no matter how tall they buzzed it down to the ground, then they came back last year and applied some sort of defoliant. My neighbor who was trying to build up a thicket type barrier about 3-4 ft tall was sprayed. I was going to give them a call before spring and see what their policy was and what my rights under their easement were. About a decade ago a big power conglomerate sold to a local co-op, and the local coop has been johnny on the spot when it comes to outages, but for everything else, it's like Comcast Cable runs the power company. They're a local monopoly and they know it.

You own all the rights to your property; except that the power company has a right to access the property and maintain their ability to do so. Usually the easement is restricted to a single use as an example to run their power lines. Assuming no other grants were made. that still apply.

Hi. I came home to my property destroyed by my pc. Everything dead. I lived here 10 years and never heard a peep. The power pole has clearance from street. They did not have to go around the brush line onto my property and spray. Now I have a quarter acre of dead brush. Are they gonna clean it up? No. Deer lived in there, rabbits & lots of birds. 10 yrs and all of a sudden its a problem. I reached out, but the sprayers do not speak english. 3rd party. This country has gone down hill lately.

You have a thirty feet zone they can spray, if you do not keep it clear of strubs.