EPA to Review Pesticides' Effects in California
Click Here to Add CommentSubject: EPA to Review Pesticides' Effects in California
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 17:07:14 -0400
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
EPA to Review Pesticides' Effects in California
EUREKA, California, April 22, 2002
(ENS) - Under a settlement with three California environmental groups, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will review the effects of common
pesticides on endangered salmon and woodland plants.
In the agreement signed Friday, the EPA will consult
with two other federal agencies, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), on specific uses of 18 chemical
pesticides in California. They include how the pesticides are used in forestry,
on fruit, nut, nursery and forage crops, and on highway and utility rights of
way and irrigation canals.
The 18 pesticides will be analyzed for effects in
one or more of these usage sites in the habitat of each of the seven salmon
species and 33 forest plants that are named in the settlement.
"These species are close to extinction and
pesticides continue to pollute their habitat but the EPA hasn't even begun to
take action to protect them. How can an endangered species survive if the effect
of widely used pesticides isn't taken into account?" said Patty Clary of
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics (CATs), the lead plaintiff group.
"We welcome the EPA's resolve to take these
first important steps to protect some of the nation's most highly valued and
imperiled wildlife species from the effects of pesticides," Clary added.
The environmentalists targeted in their lawsuit some
of the most common pesticides registered by the EPA, including chlorpyrifos,
diazinon, atrazine, Roundup, and 2,4-D.
More than 112,000 pounds of diazinon alone were
applied to California lettuce crops in 2000 according to the Department of
Pesticide Regulation. Government agencies often detect diazinon in rivers, the
conservation groups charge, and the EPA has determined that diazinon exceeds
levels of concern for toxicity and risk to endangered species.
Another chemical in the settlement is atrazine, the
pesticide most often found in rain and river water, which the EPA acknowledges
exceeds its level of concern for chronic toxicity to fish reproduction. A recent
study linked atrazine exposure to reproductive deformities in frogs.
The agreement put on hold a lawsuit filed by CATs,
the Environmental Protection Information Center and Humboldt Watershed Council
that challenged the EPA's failure to consult with NMFS and USFWS as required
under the Endangered Species Act. Before the settlement can become final, the
EPA will post it on its website and ask the public for comment on the proposed
settlement.
Once comments have been received, the EPA will then
decide whether changes need be made to the settlement. If the plaintiff groups
agree with any proposed changes, the lawsuit will be resolved.
"We're cautiously optimistic that this
settlement will result in improved science to protect our water and the
endangered species that live in it from the detrimental effects of
pesticides," said Ken Miller of the Humboldt Watershed Council.
Well
Mr. Helliker, Too bad you did not "review" the adverse effects
before you "registered" these terrible POISONS!
Respectfully, Stephen
L. Tvedten
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