Aug 26, 2024EPA releases final version of herbicide strategy
The EPA has released its final version of a strategy that will guide the agency’s compliance process with the Endangered Species Act through registration and registration review for active ingredients of herbicides.
“Herbicide Strategy to Reduce Exposure of Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Species and Designated Critical Habitats from the Use of Conventional Agricultural Herbicides” (.pdf) is expected to be incorporated into the EPA’s Proposed Decision and Proposed Interim Decisions, to be released for public comment in early 2025.
Strategy steps
- Establish the potential for population-level impacts to the listed species as not likely, low, medium or high. The low, medium and high categories indicate a potential concern for population-level impacts that may need mitigation.
- Identify type and level of mitigation needed. Two key types of mitigations may be required: Erosion/Surface Water Runoff and Spray Drift.
- Identify where mitigation applies. The mitigations would apply across the full spatial extent of a use pattern within the contiguous U.S. In other cases, EPA may require any necessary mitigations only in specific areas.
The Draft Insecticide Strategy, currently open for comments, models the Final Herbicide Strategy as it relates to the key steps and mitigation measures.
The National Potato Council is among the agricultural organizations concerned about the complexity of the final strategy.
“We are continuing to work with EPA and USDA’s Office of Pest Management Policy to expand the menu of mitigations and to make the future compliance with federal regulations on the use of pesticides as simplistic as possible at the farm level,” Ben Sklarczyk, NPC vice president of Environmental Affairs, said in a news release. “The combined efforts of NPC’s Environmental Affairs Committee, our Pesticide Advisory Panels, and the state organizations to provide farm management input has allowed us to make some positive strides to guide EPA’s strategy around implementing the Endangered Species Act.”
