January 2003
EPA Publishes Endangered Species
Protection ProgramThe Environmental Protection Agency published the proposal for the Endangered Species Protection Program (ESPP) in the December 2 edition of the Federal Register. After a three-month comment period, a Pesticide Registration notice will be issued, rather than formal rules regarding the ESPP.
The Agency believes that it can meet its endangered species obligations without placing unnecessary burdens on agriculture and other pesticide users. Components of the proposal include upgrading county bulletins, which include maps showing the habitats of listed species at a county level. If warranted, pesticide labels would be amended to reference the county bulletins.
Specifically, the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) has proposed asking registrants to label their products with endangered species advisories if the products have been identified as potential threats to listed species in Endangered Species pamphlets. The pamphlets, which are precursors to the county bulletins, are based on the biological opinions issued by agencies such as the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service which describe species at risk, pesticides of concern, use limitations required to protect the species, and species habitat. The advisory on the label would instruct the user to obtain the county bulletin. Previous proposals had required county bulletins on the actual pesticide label, but some argued that the bulletins weren’t flexible enough to allow for any deviations, which may leave an applicator open to misuse penalties even if their judgments were supported by expert knowledge of local weather or terrain.
Although the labeling portion of the ESPP seems to be resolved, the monitoring of how the program is performing is still being discussed. There are two options being examined, the first of which is incident reporting. This is questionable since it isn’t always possible to prove that an animal was killed or sickened because of pesticide exposure. Another approach is compliance monitoring. Although OPP is not sure of the best approach in gauging user compliance with an enhanced ESPP, it is proposing to engage several states in pilot studies to examine adherence to bulletins as well as the effectiveness of landowner agreements and state-specific approaches. Comments are being received under the docket number OPP-2002-0311 through March 3, 2003 (opp-docket@epa.gov). The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Endangered Species Program can be found at: http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/~aes/pesticides/SES_endgspec.htm (Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, Vol. 31, No. 7, & Federal Register, 12/2/02).
