Rule Frees EPA’s Hands on Pesticides

The Bush administration is proposing a strategy to end legal battles over the risks of pesticides to endangered species.

A rule scheduled for publication would authorize the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency to decide largely on its own whether a pesticide is likely to cause harm to any wildlife protected under the Endangered Species Act. Such decisions now require agreement from the federal fish and wildlife agencies charged with protecting such species, formal approvals the EPA historically has neglected to obtain.

The proposal comes months after conservation groups in Oregon and Washington won a lawsuit in Seattle against the EPA. In that case, the federal judge, finding cause for immediate concern, recently banned dozens of pesticides along all rivers and streams where threatened or endangered salmon run in Oregon, Washington and California.

The judge ruled earlier that the EPA failed to consult with fish and wildlife services, as required by the Endangered Species Act, when approving pesticide uses. Similar lawsuits involving endangered frogs, sea turtles and other wildlife are proceeding in several states.

Conservation groups this week said the proposed rule would leave salmon and other endangered wildlife vulnerable to widely used weedkillers and insect poisons. Bush administration officials said the new rule is needed to speed consultations over the effects of pesticides on endangered species.

“It would create a better working scenario between EPA and the services,” said Clint Riley, special assistant to the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the primary enforcer of the Endangered Species Act. “The services would be more involved in the analysis of effects and involved earlier in EPA’s process,” Riley said. He said the EPA still would have to meet all requirements of the Endangered Species Act.

Pesticide-makers applauded the proposal and said the lawsuits have overstated the risks to wildlife. They said limits sought by conservation groups would prevent farmers from using safe chemicals to battle insects, weeds and diseases.

“EPA has a very rigorous and robust regulatory program right now that includes considering risks to wildlife and endangered species,” said Pat Donnelly of CropLife America, an industry group in Washington, D.C., representing pesticide-makers.

Farm groups, such as the Farm Bureaus of Oregon and Washington and the Washington State Potato Commission, also support the proposal.

Source: The Oregonion