EPA Ordered to Produce Documents About Pesticide Suspected in Bee Colony Collapse
A federal court in the District of Columbia has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to produce certain records about the pesticide clothianidin and lists of potentially protected documents to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which sought the information under a Freedom of Information Act Request submitted in July 2008. Natural Resources Defense Council v. EPA, No. 08-1429 (D.D.C., decided June 23, 2009).
According to the court, the information related to “the use of the pesticide clothianidin on crops in the United States, EPA’s evaluation of the safety of the pesticide on bees, studies submitted by chemical manufacturers relating to the toxicity of the pesticide to bees, and communications with other federal or foreign agencies regarding environmental risks posed by the pesticide.”
The day before the court filed its ruling establishing a schedule for the document production, EPA announced that it had developed a “pollinator protection strategic plan.” The plan, created in response to concerns expressed in a mid-June House appropriators’ report, will apparently involve the assembly of a multidisciplinary team to “guide agency efforts to address widespread bee colony collapse, particularly of honeybees, which threatens billions of dollars of agricultural production that relies on the insects.”
In its announcement, EPA suggested that other factors, such as reemerging pathogens, habitat loss, pests, bee-management practices, and nutritional stress, could be responsible for the problem. Still, given gaps in EPA’s understanding about the effects of pesticides on honeybees, the agency team will focus primarily on pesticide use as a potential contributing factor to honeybee decline and will make improvements to EPA’s knowledge base, toxicity testing, risk management tools, interagency collaboration, and stakeholder communications.
In a related development, the Senate reportedly confirmed President Barack Obama’s (D) nominee to lead EPA’s pesticides office by a unanimous vote. Stephen Owens, who most recently headed Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality, will serve as the next assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances. According to a news source, Owens lacks extensive technical expertise, but has wide-ranging political and management experience that some claim will be required as policymakers begin reforming the nation’s chemical management policy. See Inside EPA, July 7, 2009.
