3-207. Crop pest or disease menacing state; notice of hearing; publication

A. When a crop pest or disease is discovered within this state, or any section of an adjoining state or country, which the director believes menaces or threatens serious injury to the horticultural or agricultural industry of this state unless the crop pest or disease is eradicated, suppressed or controlled so as not to cause the threatened injury, and if the director believes it impractical to prevent the threatened injury except by destruction in whole or part of uninfested or uninfected plants within this state which would, if not destroyed or injured, permit the crop pest or disease to be introduced into this state or cause its spread and dissemination either within or without the state, he shall give public notice of the menace stating the character thereof, its present location and the crops to which it is injurious. The notice shall direct all persons interested:

1. To appear at the division office at a time therein specified to consider measures for the suppression, eradication or control of the threatened injury.

2. To show cause why the director should not order the destruction or injury of all or such portion of the plants, which, if not destroyed or injured, will become the means of introducing the crop pest or disease into the state or of spreading it to other places, or to show cause why a quarantine zone should not be established.

B. The notice shall be published at least seven days prior to the hearing in at least one newspaper for at least one insertion in each county wherein the director deems it necessary to destroy or injure the plants, and in a newspaper published at Phoenix.