Agreement Ends Decades of Pesticide Office Refusing to Comply with Endangered Species Act
SAN FRANCISCO— A historic legal agreement approved in federal district court yesterday afternoon commits the Environmental Protection Agency to a suite of proposed reforms to better protect endangered species from pesticides. The settlement, which covers more than 300 pesticide active ingredients, marks the culmination of the largest Endangered Species Act case ever filed against the EPA.
Under the agreement’s terms, the EPA will develop strategies to reduce the harm to endangered species from broad groups of pesticides, including herbicides and insecticides, while taking further steps to target meaningful, on-the-ground protections to endangered species most vulnerable to harm from pesticides.
These measures to reduce pesticide harms will benefit endangered species and humans alike, as these chemicals are linked to severe health harms in farmworkers and rural communities.
“Pesticides take a devastating toll on imperiled wildlife and are a driving factor in the current insect apocalypse,” said Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “After decades of inaction in the face of terrible harms, the EPA is now committed to much needed actions to protect endangered species, and with the judicial oversight necessary to ensure that changing political winds don’t wipe out lifesaving progress.”
Today’s legal agreement requires the EPA to develop a strategy to better protect endangered species from herbicides by 2024 and insecticides by 2025. The EPA recently released the draft herbicide strategy for public comment. The settlement also requires the EPA to address the harms of eight especially hazardous organophosphate insecticides on endangered species by 2027.
“Many pesticides covered by this agreement are linked to birth defects and cancer in people, so this is a huge step forward for public health,” said Margaret Reeves, a senior scientist focused on environmental health and workers' rights at the Pesticide Action Network. “Protecting the environment from pesticides benefits farmworkers and communities that are suffering from pesticides polluting their soil, air and water.”
The pesticides included in this agreement have a range of severe effects on human health and the environment. Organophosphate pesticides have been linked to reproductive harm and cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. The herbicide dicamba has caused damage to millions of acres of crops and natural areas when it drifts off the intended fields killing other plants.
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