UPDATE, October 24, 2026. When I sent this letter on September 2, I asked the President to demand one thing above all: Pennsylvania's full 2026 spray log for the Lancaster–Lebanon mosquito program. Seven weeks later, that log for Lancaster County still hasn't surfaced. Not in the state's public file. Not in the program's own Right-to-Know response. So a new request is going straight to Lancaster.

Here is where things stand, what I got wrong in the original letter, and why the Amish of Lancaster County deserve an answer.

The record that isn't there

Lancaster County is the center of this outbreak. Pennsylvania now reports 1,338 measles cases in 44 counties, 255 hospitalizations and five "measles-associated" deaths, and Lancaster alone has 474 of those cases, more than any other county.

Yet the state's public 2026 spray notification file lists no adult-mosquito spraying in Lancaster County at all. The only Lancaster entries are helicopter black-fly treatments of the Susquehanna River, shared with eight other counties. The file was last updated September 25, and its latest spray date is September 21.

The county with the most cases has no adult-mosquito spray record anywhere in the public file.

PA DEP's 2026 spray file, retrieved October 24. Lancaster appears only in a black-fly river treatment; the one AquaDuet truck spray in the program's area is in Lebanon County. Highlighting added.

What the Right-to-Know response produced

The requests described in the September 3 update went to the two conservation districts. Lancaster's district referred its request to Lebanon's, which runs the joint program. On September 28, the Lebanon County Conservation District answered: "granted in part and denied in part." It said complaint logs, incident reports and a forward spray schedule "do not exist."

Lebanon County Conservation District Right-to-Know response, Sept 28, 2026. The requester's details are cropped out. Highlighting added.

The 31 enclosed files hold the program's own log: 19 adult-mosquito applications between June 29 and August 28, all in Lebanon County. One was the August 24 AquaDuet truck spray around Campbelltown. The other 18 were small permethrin spot treatments. Only the August 24 spray appears in the state's public file.

The district's own log against the state's public file.

And Lancaster? Nothing. In the 2025 state file, Lancaster's sprays ran under business license BU 0944. The September 28 response names that license in its first paragraph, produces nothing under it, and never says whether Lancaster records were searched.

The technical record
Lancaster in DEP's 2026 file. Every Lancaster row is a multi-county "Aerial/Helicopter" application of Vectobac SC (a Bti larvicide) to the Main Stem Susquehanna River, pest "Black fly," business license 5976. No row lists Lancaster with an adult-mosquito product.
Lebanon production. 19 applications from June 29 to August 28, 2026: one ULV truck spray of AquaDuet over 115.2 acres on August 24 (BU 13818), and 18 spot treatments with Flit 10EC or PermaSease totaling 6.11 acres. The only license produced was BU 13818. No BU 0944 records were produced.
Honest limits. I don't know whether small spot treatments must be listed in DEP's public file, so the 18 missing entries are a question for DEP, not proof of a violation. A missing production is also not proof that no spraying happened.

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A correction to this letter

I owe readers a correction, and it matters. This letter said the program's page announced a September truck spray in East Hempfield Township, Lancaster Township and Lancaster City, and that the documented spray geography reached the western edge of the Amish settlement. Both of the Lancaster notices behind those statements turned out to be older. The Lancaster Township notice was from 2025. A City of Lancaster notice I relied on was from 2024 and matches a row in DEP's 2024 file. I have withdrawn both.

The letter's own evidence box already said the only documented 2026 application was in North and South Londonderry Townships, Lebanon County. That is still true. What changes is the claim of documented overlap with Lancaster in 2026. I no longer make it.

The correction doesn't close the question. It sharpens it. No 2026 Lancaster adult-mosquito spray record has surfaced anywhere, from either the state or the program. Either no spraying happened all year in the outbreak's epicenter, or it did and the records haven't been released. Both answers matter, and Pennsylvania should say which one is true, in writing.

The new Right-to-Know request

On [FILING DATE], a new request went directly to the Lancaster County Conservation District, with an identical copy to the County of Lancaster. It is kept short on purpose, asking only for routine records the program already keeps, so there is little reason to delay:

Every 2026 adult-mosquito application in Lancaster County, under any license (BU 0944 or BU 13818), including truck, spot, barrier and backpack treatments, in the same electronic format Lebanon produced.
The trap and test results that triggered each application. Two of Lebanon's treatments came before any positive test at that site, so the trigger matters.
Every public notice or press release for those applications, as issued.

Communications, complaint records and the methods used to warn households will follow in a separate request. Under the Right-to-Know Law, the agency has five business days to respond and may take up to 30 more days. If the answer is "no records exist," that answer needs to be in writing, too.

What has happened since the letter was sent.

Why this is about protecting the Amish

Pennsylvania has a name for the Plain community: a "high priority population." Its outreach plan includes buggy clinics, mud sales and school visits, and it says change may take place "over generations." State staff have now run more than 6,500 MMR vaccinations at 226 pop-up clinics in affected communities, and providers statewide gave more than 56,000 MMR doses in September against about 25,000 in a typical month.

Pennsylvania Bureau of Immunizations, "Outreach in the Plain Community," April 15, 2025. Verbatim excerpt; highlighting added.

That is intense, targeted attention. Set it beside what the same state offers this community about spraying. DEP's notices say AquaDuet "is not harmful to humans or animals." The Health Department's own fact sheet says pesticides are "inherently toxic" and tells pregnant women and caregivers of young children to take precautions. Its advice is to close windows, turn off the air conditioning, bring pets inside and pick garden produce first.

PA Department of Health, "Adult Mosquito Spraying Fact Sheet." Highlighting added.

Many Plain households have no air conditioning, no email and no smartphone alerts. They live with open windows, livestock, pasture and large gardens, which is the kind of setting the AquaDuet label allows the spray to drift over. The one public notice in the Lebanon records went out by email and through the news media.

An Amish family at home in Lancaster County. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress, Public domain.

I want to be precise. The records do not show spray trucks being aimed at Amish farms, and I am not claiming that. What they show is a community singled out for one kind of state attention and left without a clear answer about another. A family has a right to know what was sprayed near its children, its well water and its garden. And because federal science has studied the Amish for decades as a distinctive comparison population, an undocumented exposure in this window harms the scientific record too.

Protecting the Amish here means three plain things: tell them, in a form that reaches them, before any spray; put every 2026 application near their communities on the public record; and let them, not a press release, decide whether the risk was acceptable.

What Pennsylvania should release now

Every 2026 adult-mosquito application in Lancaster County, or a written statement that there were none.
A complete statewide 2026 list, including applications missing from DEP's public file, or DEP's written statement that its file is complete.
DEP's basis for "not harmful to humans or animals," reconciled with the label, the safety data sheet and the Health Department's own warning, or a withdrawal of that sentence.
How Plain households without phones, email or air conditioning were warned before each application.
The records behind each "measles-associated" death classification, redacted for privacy, and why the CDC has acknowledged three U.S. measles deaths this year while Pennsylvania alone reports five.

The asks in this letter to the President are unchanged. Citizens can reach county records. Only state and federal officials can reach DEP, the Health Department and any co-exposure analysis. Mr. President, Secretary Kennedy: the request is still one records demand away.

Every record cited here is on the public dashboard at restoretransparency.com, where each entry links to its source and can be disputed. When Lancaster answers, the answer goes there.

A state that says its spray is harmless should have no trouble showing where it sprayed.

This update is for educational and public-accountability purposes and is not medical or legal advice. Records from the Right-to-Know production were obtained by a Pennsylvania citizen-coalition volunteer and are reproduced with personal details removed.

Sources

1,338 measles cases in 44 counties, 255 hospitalizations and five "measles-associated" deaths: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/health/newsroom/pa-department-of-health-provides-statewide-update-on-measles-out12
474 of those cases, more than any other county: https://www.abc27.com/pennsylvania/nearly-two-new-measles-dozens-cases-new-pennsylvania-county-reported-in-update/
public 2026 spray notification file: https://files.dep.state.pa.us/Water/WNV/2026_Spray_Notifications.pdf
August 24 AquaDuet truck spray around Campbelltown: https://lebtown.com/2026/08/21/conservation-district-to-spray-for-mosquitoes-in-campbelltown-area-monday-night/
2025 state file: https://files.dep.state.pa.us/Water/WNV/2025_Spray_Notifications.pdf
DEP's 2024 file: https://files.dep.state.pa.us/Water/WNV/2024_Spray_Notifications.pdf
Lancaster County Conservation District: https://lancasterconservation.org/right-to-know/
County of Lancaster: https://co.lancaster.pa.us/579/Right-to-Know
Right-to-Know Law: https://www.openrecords.pa.gov
"high priority population.": https://www.immunizationmanagers.org/content/uploads/2025/04/Responding-to-Measles-Outbreaks-in-High-Priority-Populations-slides_041525.pdf
more than 56,000 MMR doses in September: https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2026-10-23-pennsylvania-measles-outbreak-climbs-above-1300-cases
"is not harmful to humans or animals.": https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dep/newsroom/2026-08-04-dep-to-conduct-mosquito-controls-in-delaware-county
"inherently toxic": https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/health/documents/topics/documents/diseases-and-conditions/Mosquito%20Spraying%20.pdf
AquaDuet label: https://www.clarke.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/aquaduet.pdf
the CDC has acknowledged three U.S. measles deaths this year while Pennsylvania alone reports five: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/us-measles-cases-hit-4588-more-twice-last-year-s-total
restoretransparency.com: https://restoretransparency.com/

Images: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress (Public domain, Wikimedia Commons); PA DEP, PA DOH and Lebanon County Conservation District public records; Association of Immunization Managers.

Update: The Lancaster Spray Log Still Isn't…