Posted April 24, 2014
A lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its regulation of “neonicotinoid” pesticides will continue, despite the judge dismissing some claims, according to an article by Capital Press available here.
Four beekeepers and several nonprofit groups including the Sierra Club, Center for Food Safety, and Center for Environmental Health, filed a complaint against the EPA, challenging its approval of pesticides containing clothianidin and thiamethoxam.
The Courthouse News Service reports the groups argued “that the poisons and other neonicotinoids like them have decimated the honeybee population by contributing to the mysterious colony-collapse disorder, in which worker bees abandon the hive and vanish en masse, leaving the queen and unhatched brood to die.” The plaintiffs also argued that the EPA ignored farmers’ deliberate misuse of neonicotinoids and “routinely issues conditional permits” without further examination.
The EPA, joined by pesticide makers, moved to dismiss the action under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney found no evidence that FIFRA required the agency to publish notices each time it approved a conditional use registration: “Although the plaintiffs allege, in a conclusory manner, that the applications sought approval for ‘new clothianidin uses’ and ‘new thiamethoxam uses’ on ‘crops and habitats where the beekeepers’ honeybees foraged and pollinated,’ they fail to include sufficient facts to identify the nature of any changed use pattern.”
Judge Chesney dismissed plaintiffs’ claims for failure to provide notice because of the six-year statute of limitations. Judge Chesney said other claims, including the EPA’s use of conditional permits and registrations, must first be challenged administratively.
The Judge also dismissed the claims that EPA had an obligation to consult the Fish and Wildlife Service before approving pesticide labels, “since the groups had never lodged the complaint officially.”
The plaintiffs have until May 9 to cure the deficiencies in their remaining claims against the EPA.
For more information on pesticides and FIFRA, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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