[6] NOAA Fisheries Releases First Pesticide BiOp
NOAA Fisheries announced Nov. 18 new recommendations governing the use of three common pesticides near salmon streams. The agency issued a BiOp that is a result of a settlement between environmental groups, EPA and NOAA Fisheries that was reached last August, when the federal fish agency agreed to complete consultations on the effects of 37 pesticides on West Coast salmon and steelhead, with the first three to be completed by the end of October.
This BiOp deals with diazonin, malathion, and chlorpyrifos--and it concluded that they are likely to jeopardize 27 populations of salmon on the West Coast that are listed for protection under the ESA. The findings are based on laboratory studies.
"Scientific research has shown that these three chemicals when found in streams can damage and even kill salmon," said Jim Balsiger, acting NOAA assistant administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "The chemicals may also harm stream water quality and the small fish and insects that salmon eat. The restrictions are designed to prevent harmful effects. "
The agency expects to have 34 more compounds in pesticides regulated by March 2012.
In 2003, Seattle District Court Judge John Coughenour ruled that, for the time being, he would go along with environmentalists' recommendations that called for buffer zones along streams to keep pesticides from harming wild salmonids listed under the ESA.
His ruling said the plaintiffs had demonstrated, "with reasonable scientific certainty," that the buffers should be 20 yards wide for ground applications and 100 yards for aerial applications.
However, the new BiOp calls for buffer zones of 1,000 feet for aerial applications and 500 feet for ground application between pesticides and salmon streams, along with at least 20-foot vegetation buffers along other surface waters to absorb runoff from treated fields. Even more restrictions govern the application during windy conditions or before potential storms.
According to a statement from NOAA Fisheries, EPA will use NOAA's biological opinion "as it decides how pesticides containing the three chemicals can be used. EPA examines and registers ingredients of a pesticide to ensure there will be no unreasonable adverse effects. Once registered, a pesticide must be used in a way that is consistent with approved directions on the label."
EPA spokesman Dale Kemery told NW Fishletter that his agency is continuing to evaluate NMFS' new pesticide BiOP. "EPA remains committed to taking the necessary steps to protect threatened and endangered species from pesticide risks," Emery said, "and using rigorous scientific information and methods to develop any necessary pesticide use limitations. EPA will keep the public informed as we proceed."
Earlier, EPA had voiced some concern with the draft BiOp issued July 31. In a Sept. 15 letter to the NMFS Office of Protected Resources, EPA's Debra Edwards, director of the agency's Office of Pesticide Program, said the draft BiOp lacked "a level of transparency necessary for NMFS' rationale for its opinion that the use of any of these pesticides will jeopardize the continued existence of any of the species at issue."
Further, the EPA letter said the "draft makes no mention of the fact that agriculture chemicals are secondary stressors and therefore are considered to be a minor factor in species survival relative to other factors."
However, now that the final BiOp is out, agricultural interests are predictably unhappy. Richard Cornett, spokesman for Western Plant Health Association, which represents fertilizer and crop protection manufacturers, said while it is unclear how many crops in California are near streams that will be impacted by the extended buffer zones, "we are concerned that these are unreasonable buffer zones to consider.
"We think the NMFS opinion is flawed and that they used outdated science and outdated information to arrive at their numbers," said Cornett. "We continue to be concerned that NMFS lacks the adequate scientific basis for claiming that authorized uses of the products identified in its decision in fact pose a risk to salmon."
NOAA scientists had found the chemicals not only can be lethal to salmon at certain concentrations, but could also hinder salmon growth at lower levels of concentration by impairing their ability to smell their prey and by reducing the amount of small fish and insects for food. The chemicals have also been found to slow the swimming of salmon or make their swimming erratic, impairing their ability to avoid predators and to return to their natal streams to spawn.
The EPA had expected NMFS to reach different conclusions than those included in the final biological opinion, Kemery told the Capital Press in a Nov. 18 story. -B. R.
The following links were mentioned in this story:
Letter on EPA's Comments on Draft BiOp
Some dispute science used in Fisheries ruling, November 18, 2008
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