|
|
EPA WORKGROUP ON PESTICIDES SPRAY DRIFT FALLS SHORT OF GOALS AT FINAL MEETING |
|
MANASSAS, VIRGINIA, Mar. 13 -/E-Wire/-- With their deadline for a final report looming, industry and environmentalist members of the Spray Drift Workgroup will attempt to bridge their differences via conference calls now that time has run out for face-to-face meetings.
|
The EPA Spray Drift Workgroup continued to find common ground on the need for major revisions in product labeling, but consensus between industry and environmentalists on various other significant issues remained elusive during their final March 7-8 meeting in Crystal City, Va.
|
The conference ended before discussions on a draft report covering Workgroup progress and conclusions could be completed.
|
With Agency officials expressing deep reluctance to schedule a sixth, formal session, the Workgroup faces a series of conference calls to craft whatever compromises may be possible across such remaining industry-environmentalist divides as what constitutes "harm" and "sensitive sites" before time runs out for finishing their final report – which is due by the end of April.
|
A subcommittee of the Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee (PPDC), the Workgroup was announced last fall by the Agency's Office of Water (OW) and Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) (see Insider Vol. 2, No. 20, "EPA Workgroup To Study Possible Need For CWA Permits To Cover Spray Drift," Oct. 25, 2005).
|
At their November meeting, the Workgroup built on progress achieved in their September session, following frequent floundering and tensions between industry and environmentalists in their 2006 meetings, by agreeing that fundamental changes are needed on product labels to protect against spray drift.
|
In November, progress also was made toward agreement for more stringent applicator training and testing requirements and increased enforcement (see Insider Vol. 3, No. 7, "Pesticide Drift Controversies Accentuated At Initial EPA Workgroup Meeting," April 11, 2006; Insider Vol. 3, No. 12, "Emotions Subside But Differences Persist Within Spray Drift Workgroup," June 20, 2006; and Insider Vol. 3, No. 17, "Spray-Drift Workgroup Moves Toward Consensus," September 12, 2006).
|
But, even with such positive steps, the Workgroup's high-profile stakeholders also acknowledged in November that they were still far from reaching any degree of consensus on other more divisive issues, and that they were reserving those full discussions until later.
|
Finally, that time arrived for the last, face-to-face meeting, and, while some progress was made in agreeing to numerous components of the draft report outline that EPA had presented as a starting point for discussions, in the end, the consideration of some of the thorniest areas of disagreement remained to be finished.
|
Subscribers can read the full article at www.pesticide.net. If you are not a subscriber, but would like to request a one-time only, complimentary copy of the current issue of Insider eJournal, go to www.pesticide.net/signup and Register For Free Access To Basic Content – someone will contact you.
|
Other stories in the March 13, 2007, issue of PESTICIDE.NET Insider eJournal include:
|
OUTGOING OPP DIRECTOR COVERS THE WATERFRONT IN REMARKS TO STATE PESTICIDE REGULATORS
|
Jim Jones, hours before being named to a higher-level post at EPA, addressed registration review, performance measures, reinvigorating the antimicrobials testing program, glyphosate resistance, cause marketing on pesticide labels, atrazine monitoring data, worker protection, NAFTA labels, state coordination on label language issues, and relations with AAPCO and SFIREG.
|
FEDS UPDATE STATES ON CONTROVERSIAL PESTICIDE ISSUES
|
An EPA official, who said the Agency is about to issue long-awaited guidance on mold-product labeling, also explained upcoming restrictions on air duct antimicrobials to skeptical state regulators. Other officials addressed GHS labels, the new container & containment rule, the pending recycling rule, and EPA's plans to test and incorporate drift-reduction technologies in risk mitigation decisions. In the meantime, an ongoing National Cancer Institute pesticide exposure study is finding more cancer associations than expected.
|
STAKEHOLDERS RAISE NUMEROUS REGISTRATION REVIEW CONCERNS
|
At the inaugural meeting of its Registration Review Implementation Workgroup, EPA wanted general feedback on its new registration review process, but instead got an earful of specific questions and objections regarding its first two reviews.
|
EPA OPENS DISCUSSIONS ON AZINPHOS-METHYL TRANSITION
|
A new EPA workgroup has more questions than answers as the Agency tries to help farmers find new ways to kill old pests with alternatives to their mainstay insecticides, azinphos-methyl and its main alternative, phosmet – which are both being phased out. In the meantime, Earthjustice has filed suit to ban those two pesticides even sooner, along with chlorpyrifos.
|
Published bi-weekly, PESTICIDE.NET Insider eJournal provides the inside story on issues important to pesticide registrants, regulators and policy activists. PESTICIDE.NET (www.pesticide.net) also operates the world's leading website for news and regulatory information on conventional, biological and antimicrobial pesticides, with over 10,000 documents and a quarter million visits per month.
|
