Fw: Press Release: Peterson Introduces Bill to Protect Producers fromBurdensome EPA Regulation

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Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:10:23
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Subject: Press Release: Peterson Introduces Bill to Protect Producers from
Burdensome EPA Regulation

News from the House Agriculture Committee

http://agriculture.house.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 30, 2010

Media Contact:
Liz Friedlander (202) 225-1564
liz.friedlander@mail.house.gov

Peterson Introduces Bill to Protect Producers from Burdensome EPA Regulation

WASHINGTON - House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., yesterday introduced H.R. 6273 which amends the
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) to prohibit additional permits for
pesticide application when pesticides are applied consistent with FIFRA.

"This legislation provides farmers and ranchers with the safe harbor they deserve in the application of pesticides. The bill
relieves producers from a potentially costly regulatory burden that does little if anything to protect the environment," Peterson
said.

In the decades since Congress enacted the CWA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has never issued a National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the application of a pesticide. Instead, EPA has regulated these types of
applications through FIFRA, enacted by Congress to control all aspects of pesticide registration, sales and use. The FIFRA
registration process includes stringent requirements for a wide range of environmental, health and safety studies to establish the
circumstances under which pesticides can be legally used in the United States.

In January 2009, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2006 EPA rule which specifically exempted permitting of certain
pesticide applications from the CWA. In National Cotton Council of America, et al., v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
the court ruled EPA did not have the authority under the CWA to exempt application of pesticides. The Court's decision marks a
pre-emption of FIFRA by the CWA for the first time in the history of either statute.

Chairman Peterson's bill would make clear that producers who are in compliance with the requirements of FIFRA are not subject to
Clean Water Act permits.

"The 6th Circuit decision overturned decades of policy and practice with regard to the sufficiency of FIFRA regulation," Peterson
said. "This legislation will make clear that Congress never intended for farmers and ranchers to meet additional permit requirements
for pesticide applications under FIFRA."

Twelve members of the House of Representatives joined Peterson as original co-sponsors of the bill.

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The U.S. House Committee on Agriculture web site http://agriculture.house.gov has additional information on this and other subjects.

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