State ag officials blast EPA's 'insecticide strategy'

The Environmental Protection Agency overestimates the risk pesticides pose to endangered species to justify unnecessary rules, according to the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

In a letter to the EPA, the states ripped a draft of the agency’s ″insecticide strategy,″ a lawsuit-driven plan requiring pesticide applicators to check the internet to make sure they’re scoring enough ″mitigation points.″

The strategy ignores the fact many farms have limited internet access, fails to give enough credit for conservation programs and requires states to enforce unjustifiable mandates, according to the states.

″It is inconceivable to determine how (states) will deal with this enforcement challenge,″ the letter signed by association CEO Ted McKinney reads.

The insecticide strategy follows the herbicide strategy and vulnerable species pilot project, which the EPA says will help keep farm chemicals from drifting or eroding and coming into contact with federally protected species.

The EPA agreed to impose the strategies and pilot project in a court settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network. The EPA plans to also have strategies for fungicides and rodenticides.

The strategies will unfold gradually as the EPA registers or reregisters pesticides. Besides label instructions, pesticide applicators will have to check EPA websites for further instructions.

The EPA stopped taking comments on the insecticide strategy Sept. 23. State agriculture departments submitted a six-page critique with complaints shared by farm groups.

The EPA’s list of ways to score mitigation points leaves out ″hundreds, if not thousands, of measures″ farmers already are using to benefit species and habitat, according to the states.

The EPA’s disregard for current practices leads it to exaggerate the dangers of pesticides, the states said.

″The agency is most certainly overestimating the risks of pesticide use to species and habitat thereby validating unnecessary and unjustifiable mandates,″ the letter reads.

The draft insecticide strategy identifies 29 mitigation measures for reducing spray drift and 40 measures to reduce pesticide exposure from erosion, EPA spokesman Jeff Landis said in an email Tuesday.

EPA conducted outreach to growers, commodity groups, pesticide applicators, environmental groups, extension agents, crop advisers, states and others to develop the list, he said.

In May, EPA co-hosted with USDA a workshop with farm groups to identify more mitigation practices, Landis said. The EPA expects measures to evolve and increase as the agency obtains more information, he said.

In settling the lawsuit, the EPA said it was overwhelmed by trying to evaluate the risks of each pesticide product. The new approach will rely on broader measures, such as larger buffers or reduced applications.

The reliance on the internet to inform growers about the requirements is unrealistic, according to the states.

The USDA reports only 51% of farms have broadband internet, the states noted. The EPA ″seems to be intentionally ignoring this reality,″ the states charged.

Farmers in dry regions, where the risk of erosion is less, will have an advantage in scoring points. Farms working with conservation districts could get points, though not enough, according to the states.

The EPA finalized a strategy for herbicides in August. The agency has yet to propose fungicide and rodenticide strategies.
The EPA says the strategies are better for farmers than having judges summarily ban products because the agency didn’t comply with processes imposed on it by the Endangered Species Act.

The states acknowledged the EPA is trying balance registering pesticides and protecting endangered species, ″particularly as litigation pressures escalate,″ but warned about opening itself up to new legal problems.

Leaving out conservation practices with well-documented benefits could be viewed as arbitrary and capricious, according to the states.