0
Home
News
Directory
E-newsletter
Magazine
Events
Data
AgReport
Subscribe
US House of Representatives approves pesticide use legislation
Aug. 1, 2014
The US House of Representatives on Thursday signed off on pesticide legislation authored by Holmes County GOP Rep. Bob Gibbs, but it is unclear whether the Senate -- gridlocked on a number of other issues -- will even take it up.
A similar bill died in 2011 after the House passed it but the Senate could not get past jurisdictional bickering.
Gibbs' bill -- which passed the House by a 267 to 161 margin -- would clarify that Congress wants a law called the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), to govern pesticide application near wetlands or water bodies, rather than the Clean Water Act.
Advocates of his proposal say it's needed to avoid duplicate paperwork required under a 2009 court decision that ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to issue permits to pesticide applicators who want to spray near water.
The EPA and farm groups disagreed with the court ruling, but environmentalists said it would keep pesticides from contaminating rivers, lakes and other water bodies.
Gibbs bill would establish that pesticides being applied near waters don't need a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit from EPA if the substance is being used for its intended purpose and the use complies with pesticide label requirements.
"This is appropriate because pesticide registration and enforcement programs under FIFRA take into account environmental and human health risks just like the Clean Water Act does," Gibbs said on the House of Representatives floor. "This is a good bill that reduces burdensome regulations without rolling back any environmental safeguards."
Gibbs said the extra cost of complying with the Clean Water Act permit regulations and fears of potential liability have hampered routine programs to control mosquitos and other pests and "likely impacted and increased the record-breaking outbreaks of West Nile virus around the nation in 2012."
Most Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against Gibbs' bill.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards argued on the House floor that the Clean Water Act, not FIFRA, requires pesticide applicators to keep records on where and how many pesticides are being applied throughout the Nation.
"If data is showing that a local water body is contaminated by pesticides, I would think the public would want to quickly identify the likely sources of pesticide that is causing the impairment," Edwards argued.
"It is simply incorrect to say that applying a FIFRA-approved pesticide in accordance with its labeling requirements is a surrogate for protecting local water quality," she continued. "As any farmer knows, complying with FIFRA is as simple as applying a pesticide in accordance with its label. Farmers do not need to look to the localized impact of the pesticide on local water quality."
Source: cleveland.com
More from AgroNews
Change
Hot TopicSubscribe
| Subscribe Email: | * | |
| Name: | ||
| Mobile Number: | ||
Comment
0/1200
NEWSLETTER