NASDA FILES BRIEF WITH SUPREME COURT ON AQUATIC PESTICIDE CASE
News Date December 08, 2009
NASDA joined with the American Mosquito Control Association (ACMA) on Friday in filing a friend of the court brief with the United States Supreme Court asking it to hear National Cotton Council v. EPA from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
If the Sixth Circuit Court’s decision stands, farmers, pesticide applicators, and mosquito control districts will be required to obtain, for the first time, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits under the Clean Water Act (CWA) for pesticide applications in, over, or near water. This would impose a series of redundant, unnecessary, and burdensome requirements on farmers and other pesticide users, and expose them to the threat of lawsuits under the CWA’s citizen action provisions.
In its brief, NASDA and ACMA urged the Supreme Court to grant the petitions to hear the case that were filed in November by CropLife America and the American Farm Bureau. NASDA and ACMA argued that the Sixth Circuit’s decision jeopardizes public health by impeding the work of mosquito control districts. The brief also argues that the decision ignored federal laws governing pesticide use, specifically the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), while also burdening farmers and state regulators.
NASDA members are co-regulators with EPA and are the state lead agencies with primacy over pesticide issues. The decision will require states to issue permits to cover pesticide applications that are already regulated and legal under the FIFRA and state pesticide laws, laws that also enforce against the misuse of pesticide applications. (Contact: Nathan Bowen)