Coalition Sues Administration for Illegal Change to Pesticide Reviews

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Tue, 05 Oct 2004 13:06:09 GMT

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Coalition Sues Administration for Illegal Change to Pesticide

Reviews

 

 

 

 

October 5, 2004 |

 

Coalition Sues Administration for Illegal Change to Pesticide Reviews

 

A coalition of fishing and conservation groups has challenged a recent

administration regulatory change that significantly weakens

protections for endangered species.

 

The coalition's lawsuit charges the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)

and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), as well as their

parent agencies, with violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by

delegating their authority to offer scientific opinions on pesticide

impacts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA is

responsible for reviewing and approving pesticides.

 

The Bush administration claims the rule change will " streamline " the

pesticide review and approval process. But conservationists note that

such " streamlining " is actually a way for the administration to evade

its responsibility to protect endangered animals and plants.

 

The new regulation, announced in late July, allows EPA to approve

pesticides without consulting the two services to determine possible

harm to wildlife.

 

As reported by BushGreenwatch, EPA changed the rule following a

successful suit against the agency by the environmental advocacy group

Earthjustice. In that case, the court found that EPA had to complete

required consultations with the NFMS on how pesticide uses would

affect threatened and endangered Pacific coast salmon.

 

" The Act requires the services to play that role because they have the

best scientific information about the needs of the species, " said

Patti Goldman, an attorney with Earthjustice, which is representing

the coalition in the new lawsuit. " They list the species, designate

their critical habitat, develop recovery plans, and consult on all the

other activities, " she said. " And, they serve as an independent check

on agencies like EPA. "

 

David Wright, a conservation biologist who formerly worked for FWS,

says the EPA is the wrong agency to handle the assessments.

 

" A scientist always likes to look at the data. And the data on EPA's

treatment of endangered species is very poor, " Wright told

BushGreenwatch. " Why would you turn over these kinds of

assessments--about whether or not a pesticide is going to affect

endangered species--to an agency that has a track record of failing to

determine that pesticides were going to have bad effects, when in fact

they do? "

 

Wright said it is a significant conflict of interest for EPA to

conduct the wildlife assessments, when the agency also approves 20 to

30 pesticides every year, as well as over 300 pesticide products or uses.

 

Earthjustice's Goldman noted that because the new regulation weakens

the ESA's pesticide review process, farm worker health and safety are

also at greater risk, because the standards under the ESA are stronger

than the standards for agriculture.

 

Under current laws regulating pesticide use in agriculture, " EPA can

allow pesticide uses as long there isn't an unreasonable adverse

health or environmental effect, " said Goldman, " but then it balances

those risks against the benefit of the pesticide to crop production. "

EPA may then approve a pesticide if the cost of rejecting it is

considered too high.

 

As reported by BushGreenwatch, 14 chemical companies were heavily

involved in writing the new rule.

 

However, the Bush administration was not required to release records

of those meetings to the public. " We sued to try to get them...we

asserted that this body was acting as a federal advisory committee, "

Goldman told BushGreenwatch. But the district judge in the case ruled

that because the administration had not formally invited the industry

to advise it, no disclosure was required.

 

###

 

SOURCES:

" Government Rule Cutting Wildlife Experts out of Pesticide Reviews

Illegal, Says Coalition of Conservation and Fishing Groups, "

Earthjustice press release, Sept. 23, 2004.

 

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