Farm, wildlife groups disagree on pesticide permitting bill
June 22, 2011 | 08:51 AM | Filed in: Conservation Environmental Protection Agency House Ag Committee Senate Ag Committee
By JERRY HAGSTROM
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and several farm groups are urging the Senate to pass a bill intended to reduce what they consider to be costly and duplicative pesticide permitting requirements, but the National Wildlife Federation is opposed to the bill.
The Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this week voted by voice to approve the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011. The bill would amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act and the Clean Water Act to clarify congressional intent; it would eliminate CWA permitting requirements for crop protectants already regulated under FIFRA. The legislation passed the House of Representatives in late March on a bipartisan vote of 292-130.
Lucas urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to bring the bill to the floor.
“I commend the Senate Agriculture Committee for advancing H.R. 872,” Lucas said in a news release. “I urge Majority Leader Reid to join this important, bipartisan effort and send the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. The cost of inaction is far-reaching and significant, and would be a crushing blow to an already struggling economy.”
The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives urged passage of the bill. NCFC President Chuck Conner said the need for the bill had arisen because of “a misguided Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in National Cotton Council v. EPA.”
“Left unchanged, the permitting requirements will expose farmers and ranchers to legal jeopardy through citizen suits over paper work violations,” Conner said.
The National Association of Wheat Growers and the National Corn Growers Association also applauded the Senate Agriculture Committee action.
“This legislation clarifies that National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits are not required when applying pesticides according to their EPA approved label,” the corn growers said in a news release.
But the National Wildlife Federation said the bill threatens public health and wildlife.
“Without a hearing or public discussion, today the Senate Agriculture Committee voted to strip states and the Environmental Protection Agency of their fundamental responsibility to protect our nation’s waters from toxic pesticides,” the group said, adding that the bill would prohibit state and federal authorities from requiring a permit for the discharge of pesticides in waterways.
“It’s just baffling that the committee voted without public debate to exempt the worst poisons from the Clean Water Act at a time when they are causing such damage to our nation’s waterways,” NWF President and CEO Larry Schweiger said in a news release.
“By prohibiting the EPA or states from requiring a permit under the Clean Water Act’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System for the discharge of pesticides, this bill will create a dangerous vacuum in protecting wildlife, human health and natural systems,” he added.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and several farm groups are urging the Senate to pass a bill intended to reduce what they consider to be costly and duplicative pesticide permitting requirements, but the National Wildlife Federation is opposed to the bill.
The Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this week voted by voice to approve the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011. The bill would amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act and the Clean Water Act to clarify congressional intent; it would eliminate CWA permitting requirements for crop protectants already regulated under FIFRA. The legislation passed the House of Representatives in late March on a bipartisan vote of 292-130.
Lucas urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to bring the bill to the floor.
“I commend the Senate Agriculture Committee for advancing H.R. 872,” Lucas said in a news release. “I urge Majority Leader Reid to join this important, bipartisan effort and send the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. The cost of inaction is far-reaching and significant, and would be a crushing blow to an already struggling economy.”
The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives urged passage of the bill. NCFC President Chuck Conner said the need for the bill had arisen because of “a misguided Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in National Cotton Council v. EPA.”
“Left unchanged, the permitting requirements will expose farmers and ranchers to legal jeopardy through citizen suits over paper work violations,” Conner said.
The National Association of Wheat Growers and the National Corn Growers Association also applauded the Senate Agriculture Committee action.
“This legislation clarifies that National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits are not required when applying pesticides according to their EPA approved label,” the corn growers said in a news release.
But the National Wildlife Federation said the bill threatens public health and wildlife.
“Without a hearing or public discussion, today the Senate Agriculture Committee voted to strip states and the Environmental Protection Agency of their fundamental responsibility to protect our nation’s waters from toxic pesticides,” the group said, adding that the bill would prohibit state and federal authorities from requiring a permit for the discharge of pesticides in waterways.
“It’s just baffling that the committee voted without public debate to exempt the worst poisons from the Clean Water Act at a time when they are causing such damage to our nation’s waterways,” NWF President and CEO Larry Schweiger said in a news release.
“By prohibiting the EPA or states from requiring a permit under the Clean Water Act’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System for the discharge of pesticides, this bill will create a dangerous vacuum in protecting wildlife, human health and natural systems,” he added.
