EPA will reconsider ban of pesticide drift

Date:05-13-2010

BrownfieldAgNews reports that the EPA says it will reconsider its controversial proposal to ban any drifting of herbicide, pesticide or fungicide spray.

The American Farm Bureaus director of congressional relations, Tyler Wegmeyer, says its great news for farmers and ranchers.

"Were still sleeping maybe with one eye open-but it looks like theyre going back to the drawing board on this," says Wegmeyer. "Were going to keep our eyes on it, but the proposal they originally came out with, it looks as though theyre not going to go through with it-so that is good news."

Wegmeyer says the proposal was impossible and impractical. "The original proposal that EPA put forward on spray drift was a zero tolerance-essentially saying that if you sprayed any sort of chemical that had an adverse effect, that it would be a violation of the label."

The EPA received over 30-thousand comments on the proposal, which Wegmeyer says carried a lot of weight. "A lot of those comments, of course, came from farmers and ranchers about their displeasure with what EPA was proposing."

Wegmeyer says EPAs reconsideration of the proposal will likely be a lengthy process.