All Knowledge & Insights By Date

On October 23, 2015, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other environmental groups including the Center for Food Safety (CFS, et al.) (together, Petitioners) filed separate opening briefs in Case Nos. 14-73353 and 14-73359 (consolidated) arguing that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to register Dow AgroScience’s Enlist Duo herbicide (a combination of glyphosate and 2,4,-D) for use on Enlist corn...

On October 27, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report on an evaluation conducted by OIG entitled “EPA Needs Policies and Procedures to Manage Public Pesticide Petitions in a Transparent and Efficient Manner” (OIG Report).  OIG evaluated how EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) tracks the receipt, disposition and resolution of public petitions, focusing on OCSPP’s Office of Pesticide...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a new pesticides website:  http://www2.epa.gov/pesticides, and a new biopesticides website:  http://www2.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides, among others.  EPA states that this gradual move to new versions of its content is part of a larger EPA effort to build a more user-friendly website.  The updated biopesticides website focuses on providing general information on biopesticides, as well as tools to assist...

On September 28, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced revisions to its worker protection standard.  EPA states that these revisions are intended to “enhance the protections provided to agricultural workers, pesticide handlers, and other persons under the Worker Protection Standard (WPS) by strengthening elements of the existing regulation, such as training, notification, pesticide safety and hazard communication information, use of personal protective...

On September 22, 2105, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice in the Federal Register listing its revised registration service fees applicable to specified pesticide applications and tolerance actions for fiscal year (FY) 2016 that are registered under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).  The Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2003 (PRIA) established FIFRA Section 33, creating a registration...

On September 1, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the debut of a new electronic system for pesticide applications, the Pesticide Submission Portal.  According to EPA, this debut is the first step in a phased approach that ultimately will allow EPA to accept all pesticide applications electronically — a move that will help modernize the pesticide registration process, increase operational efficiencies, and reduce paper waste.  EPA will continue to...

The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) extended the comment date on its draft guidance, Pesticide Cumulative Risk Assessment: Framework for Screening Analysis, in a Federal Register notice published on August 28, 2015.  EPA’s draft framework provides guidance on how the EPA will screen groups of pesticides for cumulative evaluation.  EPA proposes using a two-step approach, beginning with the evaluation of available toxicological information and, if necessary,...

On July 24, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Federal Register notice extending the public comment period regarding its proposed Antimicrobial Pesticides Use Site Index (USI) from July 31, 2015 to August 31, 2015.  The initial Federal Register notice announcing the availability of EPA’s guidance on the USI was issued on July 1, 2015. By way of background, in 2014, EPA issued a final rule on Data Requirements for Antimicrobial...

On July 22, 2015, EPA announced a proposed rule for the Partial Exemption of Certain Chemical Substances from Reporting Additional Chemical Data. If enacted, this rule will exempt the following six biobased chemicals from reporting additional information under the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule: Fatty acids, C14-18 and C16-18 unsaturated, methyl esters (Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number (CASRN) 67762-26-9); Fatty acids, C16-18 and C-18 unsaturated, methyl esters (CASRN 67762-38-3);...

On June 24, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notification that the EPA Administrator has forwarded to the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a draft regulatory document concerning the draft final rule entitled ”Pesticides; Revisions to Minimum Risk Exemption.” This notice states that the draft final rule will not be available to the public...