Government and Industry Ask Court to Order NGOs to Amend Their Complaint Again
Sep 16th
In San Francisco federal district court litigation, environmentalists have filed an amended complaint in response to a court ruling that their original complaint against EPA was too broad. Their amended complaint challenges EPA’s approval of more than 50 active pesticide ingredients, a decrease from the almost 300 challenged by their original complaint.
The Government and Industry Intervenors have both filed motions asking the Court to order the Plaintiffs to amend their amended complaint in a manner that makes it comprehensible . The Industry Intervenors’ motion argues:
SFIREG Meets on Bees and ESA
Sep 11th
The Association of American Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO)/State FIFRA Issues Research and Evaluation Group (SFIREG), Environmental Quality Issues Committee will hold a 2-day meeting, beginning on October 21, 2013, and ending October 22, 2013. The meeting will be held on Monday, October 21, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Tuesday, October 22, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon. The meeting will be held at EPA, One Potomac Yard (South Bldg.) 2777 Crystal Dr., Arlington, VA, 4th Floor, South Conference Room. Agenda items include status of pollinator protection efforts; bee incident updates; and endangered and threatened species update.
We Apologize for the Inconvenience Resulting from the Outage of Our Website
Sep 6th
The CRE website was attacked with the result that had we not pulled down the website we would have risked loosing content.
We appreciate your many emails and we are working to continue to install state of the art early warning systems. We must , however, add that we have only had two major outages in more than a decade of operation.
We are particularly concerned that some of you could not use the website for the preparation of regulatory filings.
CRE Comments on EPA’s Atrazine Registration Review
Aug 27th
CRE submitted comments to EPA on the Agency’s FIFRA registration review for atrazine. EPA is just beginning the registration review process, so CRE will probably file subsequent comments. CRE’s comments made the following among other points.
First, EPA’s atrazine registration review should document its compliance with EPA’s Information Quality Act (“IQA”) Guidelines. For example, EPA should document that the atrazine review and any atrazine consultations under the Endangered Species Act comply with the IQA Guidelines as expounded by the National Research Council’s report Assessing Risks to Endangered and Threatened Species from Pesticides. EPA should also document that the atrazine review and any atrazine consultations under the ESA comply with EPA’s Council for Regulatory Environmental Models (“CREM”) Guidance.
CRE Comments on EDSP Tier 2 ICR
Aug 23rd
CRE filed comments on EPA’s Information Collection Request for EPA’s Tier 2 EDSP tests. CRE commented that EPA should not submit, and OMB/OIRA should not approve, this ICR because EPA has not demonstrated that the EDSP Tier 2 tests meet Information Quality Act (“IQA”) Guidelines and Paperwork Reduction Act (“PRA”) requirements. For example, EPA has not demonstrated that the EDSP Tier 2 tests are reliable, reproducible, and useful. EPA has also not demonstrated that the EDSP Tier 2 tests are the least burdensome necessary, and that they are necessary for the proper performance of EPA’s functions.
Click here to read CRE’s comments.
Enviros Amend Complaint in ESA Pesticides Mega Case
Jul 8th
In San Francisco federal district court litigation, environmentalists have filed an amended complaint in response to a court ruling that their original complaint against EPA was too broad. Their amended complaint challenges EPA’s approval of more than 50 active pesticide ingredients, a decrease from the almost 300 challenged by their original complaint..
This case, Center for Biological Diversity v. EPA, claims that EPA has failed adequately to consult with NMFS and FWS under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act when EPA granted FIFRA registration to the pesticides identified in the amended complaint.
NAS/NRC Meets Publicly on EPA’s NMDR Paper
Jul 8th
The National Research Council, of the National Academy of Sciences, is reviewing EPA’s draft paper State of the Science on Nonmonotonic Dose Response. The NAS/NRC committee charged with this task will hold its first meeting on July 23, 2013 – July 24, 2013, at the National Academy of Sciences Building, 2100 C St. NW, Washington D.C. The public session of this meeting will begin on July 23, at 12:45 pm. For more information, contact Craig Phillip, Email: cphilip@nas.edu; Phone: 202/334-1942.
EPA Comments on NMFS’ BiOp
Jun 25th
In a letter dated June 18, 2013, EPA provided NMFS with EPA’s comments on NMFS’ May 1, 2013, Draft Biological Opinion pertaining to the potential effects of products containing diflubenzuron, fenbutatin oxide, and propargite to federally listed threatened or endangered Pacific salmon and steelhead and their critical habitat, if designated. The same letter provides EPA’s summary of public comments EPA received on this BiOp. Click here to read EPA’s letter.
EPA Evaluates Current Test Methods and NMDR
Jun 23rd
EPA has concluded that the agency’s current toxicity test methods are sufficient to determine chemicals’ hazards, despite finding in a just issued draft paper that exposure to some chemicals can result in unpredictable non-monotonic dose responses which some say can lead to effects that current testing does not detect. This EPA conclusion is stated in a new draft white paper entitled “State of the Science Evaluation: Nonmonotonic Dose Responses as They Apply to Estrogen, Androgen, and Thyroid Pathways and EPA Testing and Assessment Procedures.” This paper is available for review by clicking here.
SFIREG Full Committee Meets to Discuss Pollinator and other Issues
May 30th
The Association of American Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO)/Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO)/State FIFRA Issues Research and Evaluation Group (Full Committee) will hold a 2-day meeting beginning on June 10, 2013 and ending
June 11, 2013. The meeting will be held on Monday, June 10, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, June 11, 2013. The meeting will be held at EPA, One Potomac Yard (South Bldg.), 1st Floor South Conference Room, 2777 Crystal Dr., Arlington, VA. One of the issues discussed is Status of pollinator protection issues policy development.
Click here to read Federal Register notice of meeting.