EPA Pesticide Registration and ESA Compliance

On August 28, 2012, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness filed comments with EPA on the FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel Public Meeting on EPA’s Pollinator Risk Assessment Framework. This SAP will meet on September 11-14, 2012.

CRE’s comments are available online at  http://www.thecre.com/oira_pd/?p=110 . They apply a Data Quality Act analysis to this SAP’s review, and they include the following summary:

“1. The Data Quality Act and its guidelines apply to studies and data authored or collected by outside (or ‘third-party’) entities. The agency will not be able to use such studies or data in a risk assessment unless they can meet the law’s quality standards.

On August 22, 2012, the U.S, Fish and Wildlife Service published Federal Register notice of a proposed rule designating critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act for four central Texas salamanders. This FWS notice is available online at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-08-22/pdf/2012-19659.pdf.  The FWS’ proposed rule cites and relies on atrazine research by Dr. Tyrone Hayes: “atrazine has been shown to impair sexual development in male amphibians at concentrations as low as 0.1 part per billion (Hayes 2002, p.5, 477).” The FWS never mentions that Dr. Hayes’ research was reviewed and rejected by external, expert peer review because his research is not reproducible. See EPA Science Advisory Minutes available online at http://www.epa.gov/scipoly/sap/meetings/2007/october/finalminutes.pdf, and at http://www.epa.gov/scipoly/sap/meetings/2003/june/junemeetingreport.pdf.

On August 17, 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published Federal Register notice seeking public comment on a proposal to enhance opportunities for stakeholders to provide input during its review of pesticide registrations under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and associated consultations under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act.  This proposal was jointly prepared by EPA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The proposal describes significant changes to EPA’s registration review process which are intended to facilitate ESA pesticide consultations and coordination across these Federal agencies, and calls for a greater role for USDA. Comments must be received by EPA on or before October 16, 2012.

On August 9, 2012, EPA published Federal Register notice seeking public comment on EPA’s plan to request that OMB approve an extension of EPA’s current Information Collection Request for ‘‘Tier 1 Screening of Certain Chemicals Under the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program.” This ICR is identified by EPA ICR No. 2249.03 and OMB Control No. 2070–0176. OMB’s current approval of this ICR expires October 31, 2012. Comments on EPA’s plan to request an extension must be received by EPA on or before October 9, 2012.

●Click here to read EPA’s Federal Register notice

● Click here to read OMB’s website for this ICR

EPA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are seeking comment on their joint proposal to enhance opportunities for stakeholder input during pesticide registration reviews and endangered species consultations. Comments are due sixty days after EPA publishes Federal Register notice of this proposal.

Click here to read EPA’s website for this proposal, and to obtain a copy of it.

In a letter dated July 16, 2012, EPA partially denied NGO petitions to regarding the insecticide chlorpyrifos. This September 12, 2007 petition was submitted jointly by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pesticide Action Network North America.  The petition requested that EPA revoke all tolerances and cancel all registrations for chlorpyrifos, pursuant to 21 U.S.C. section 346a(d) (section 408(d)) of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. EPA states in the conclusion to its July 16^th letter that