The Law requires the Department to accept data from the regulated community on handwritten forms. These forms accounted for a significant percentage of the total number of forms received by the Department. The data on these forms were difficult for the data entry operators to decipher. The quality of these data are not as reliable as data submitted on typed or computer-generated forms. Usage of zip code to define application and sales locations created a number of problems.
Zip codes represent postal delivery locations.
Large wilderness areas or farmland may have few if any delivery points. Since mail is not delivered to these locations, they are technically not located in a zip code. Determination of what zip code to report for an application or intended application in one of these locations was problematic for the businesses and applicators. Some zip codes represent more than one contiguous location. Without more accurate address data than is currently collected, there is no way to divide application or intended application quantities between the separate locations represented by these zip codes.