By Todd Neeley
DTN Staff Reporter
OMAHA (DTN) -- The EPA must take action on its proposed ban on pesticides containing chlorpyrifos by March 31, 2017, a federal court has ruled.
In a final order issued Aug. 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco ruled against a request by EPA for an extension of time before the agency takes action on its proposed ban on the pesticide ingredient chlorpyrifos.
A series of court decisions in recent years and EPA actions threaten to remove the popular Dow AgroSciences insecticide from the market. EPA recently proposed a ban of chlorpyrifos -- the active ingredient in Dow AgroScience's Lorsban, an organophosphate insecticide used to combat pests such as soybean aphids, spider mites and corn rootworm.
There is some concern that doing away with chlorpyrifos could at some point complicate the battle against insects, especially when growers are being encouraged to rotate chemistry to guard against possible resistance.
"Citing 'extraordinary circumstances,' the United States Environmental Protection Agency requests an additional six-month extension to take final action on its proposed revocation rule and its final response to Pesticide Action Network North America and Natural Resources Defense Council's 2007 administrative petition," the Ninth Circuit panel said in an order. "CropLife and the other amici would double that extension. PANNA asks us to deny the EPA's request in light of the nearly decade-long delay in issuance of the rule and the documented health risks.
"The 'extraordinary circumstances' claimed this time -- that EPA issued its proposed rule before completing two studies that may bear on the agency's final rule -- is another variation on a theme 'of partial reports, missed deadlines, and vague promises of future action' that has been repeated for the past nine years. EPA's continued delay is all the more significant since there are considerable human health interests prejudiced by it."
Corn accounts for chlorpyrifos' largest agriculture market as far as total pounds used because, overall, there are more corn acres than soybean acres, according to EPA. However, in recent years, use of chlorpyrifos has expanded in soybeans and has been on the decline in corn.
According to Dow AgroScience's website, chlorpyrifos use in soybeans expanded from about 200,000 acres in 2004 to some 8 million acres in 2008. Dow estimated chlorpyrifos was applied to about 11% of soybean acres planted in 2008.
Dow estimates that since 2000, soybean aphid infestations have caused economic yield losses of up to 45% in untreated fields. Soybean aphids are now present in 20 states, including the Great Plains and into the Northeast and South, according to Dow.
USDA estimates corn rootworm leads to more than $1 billion in lost revenue each year. That includes $800 million in yield loss and about $200 million in treatment costs.
In June 2015, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a ruling pressuring EPA to make a decision by Oct. 31, 2015, on whether or not it would establish food tolerances for the insecticide. EPA stated it did not have the data needed to do so and instead would pursue a ban.
The court issued its ruling as a result of a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the Pesticide Action Network and Natural Resources Defense Council.
In April 2016, a contingent of 42 agriculture groups wanted EPA to put the brakes on a scientific advisory panel meeting held in Washington, D.C., that is part of the EPA's proposed plan to do away with chlorpyrifos-based pesticides.
The groups represent a wide range of agriculture producers, from the National Corn Growers Association to the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Sorghum Producers Association and the Western Growers Association.
Those groups expressed concern EPA is relying on a "single epidemiological study for which the agency does not even possess the underlying data, and lack of a solid basis for the most fundamental assumptions," they wrote in a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.
Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com
Follow him on Twitter @toddneeleyDTN
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