EPA has sent out the following message about the Agency’s settlement of ESA pesticide litigation brought by the Center for Biological Diversity:

“EPA has reached agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity to revise a 2010 court order which established a schedule to complete effects determinations for 75 chemicals on 11 endangered or threatened species in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Endangered Species Act requires federal agencies to determine whether an action (in this case, a pesticide registration) will adversely affect endangered or threatened species or their critical habitats.

EPA has already issued effects determinations for 59 of the 75 pesticides, and, under the proposed settlement, EPA would complete nationwide effects determinations covering all potentially affected species for atrazine, simazine, propazine and glyphosate. EPA and Center for Biological Diversity agree that it would be more efficient to complete nationwide effects determinations on those four pesticides than completing determinations that are limited to the San Francisco Bay Area for the remaining 16 pesticides.

The agreement includes schedules for completion of determinations and initiation of consultation for the four pesticides by 2020, using approaches based on with the April 2013 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report recommendations. This agreement represents the second set of chemicals, after the initial pilot chemicals (chlorpyrifos, diazinon, malathion, carbaryl, and methomyl) to be assessed on a nationwide scale.
EPA is requesting comments on this agreement, which can be viewed and commented on at Docket#EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0481 at www.regulations.gov. The 15-day comment period begins on June 23, 2015 and ends on July 8, 2015.

For more information on the original litigation and settlement, visit: http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/endanger/litstatus/factsheet.html.”

The proposed settlement agreement is also available here.