Harmonizing Clean Water Act Requirements for Pesticides in Water, EPA Calls for Public Comments
EPA is calling for public comments, due by October 14, 2003, on an interpretation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) that would allow pesticides to be exempt from CWA permitting requirements. Beyond Pesticides urges you to take action to help maintain high quality water standards and protect human health and aquatic ecosystems from further damage by toxic chemicals.
According to the Interim Statement, the EPA believes that as long as the application of a pesticide to water follows the label requirements of the pesticide (regulated under FIFRA, Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act), then the pesticide does not constitute a discharge of a pollutant and therefore, does not require a permit under CWA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
EPA's interim statement cites two specific situations where a permit with NPDES would NOT be necessary: (1) The application of pesticides directly to waters of the U.S. to control pests (such as mosquito larvae or aquatic weeds) and (2) The application of pesticides to control pests that are present over water of the U.S. that result in a portion of the pesticide being deposited to water bodies (such as the spraying of insecticides over a forest canopy where water may be present below the canopy).
FIFRA is a regulatory
and licensing law that oversees the registration of pesticides and their
application. It does not however regulate and oversee water quality and
the protection of aquatic ecosystems, which is the distinct business of
the CWA. Indeed, there is controversy over whether many of the precautionary
statements on labels registered by FIFRA adequately protect public health
and the environment from the application of toxic chemicals due to a lack
of toxicity and impact studies (report
on statement by Robert Wayland, Director of EPA's Office of Wetlands,
Oceans and Watersheds). When FIFRA registers a pesticide it also does
not adequately take into account the impacts on health and environment
of the inert ingredients in pesticides, heightened toxicity due to combinations
of chemicals (synergy), multiple applications, or the phenomenon
of toxic chemical drift, which commonly occurs in aerial spraying
situations regardless of proper FIFRA regulated application. Lastly, and
perhaps most importantly, both FIFRA and CWA serve distinct and important
purposes. This EPA action would allow the weaker FIFRA standards to trump
the more stringent CWA standards. CWA uses a kind of health-based standard
known as maximum contamination levels to protect waterways, while FIFRA
uses a highly subjective risk/benefit analysis to determine if the potential
harm done by a pesticide is worth the benefit.
Read the EPA Comments by Beyond Pesticides, or other EPA Comments on this issue for ideas. In EPA comments by the Chemical Connection, a network of Texan citizens sensitive to chemicals, Susan Pitman tells the EPA about an experience in Texas when several individuals and animals suffered intense illnesses after Lake McQueeny was sprayed by herbicides to kill aquatic vegetation in 1996. But because no violation of the pesticide label requirements could be determined (under FIFRA), the Texas Department of Agriculture could take no action to address the complaints of citizens impacted by the spraying. Had a permit been required prior to spraying the herbicide, the result most likely would have been different.
The EPA will receive public comments on this issue under Docket No. OW-2003-0063 until October 14, 2003.
The number of studies
on the impacts of pesticides on aquatic ecosystems and their surrounding
area has waned since the phasing out of organocloride products, such as
DDT and DDE in the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, because there
is not a proliferation of studies does not mean that harm is not occurring.
Widespread mosquito spraying for West Nile virus has already sparked some
new investigations into the damaging effects of herbicides and pesticides
to human health, aquatic ecosystems, animals and other non-targeted species.
For example, see Lobster
Die-Off Linked to West Nile Virus Pesticides, What's
Killing the Lobsters, and Massachusetts
Agrees to Study the Effects of Methoprene on Lobsters.