National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS, aka NOAA-Fisheries) has settled the suit filed by the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides in 2007 for NMFS failure to complete ESA Section 7 consultations for 37 pesticides in a timely manner. The settlement orders NMFS to complete consultations ordered as a result of the 2002 court settlement in Washington Toxics vs. EPA. EPA met their obligation in competing endangered species effects determinations for 37 pesticides on pacific salmon and steelhead. However, NMFS has not fulfilled their obligations in completing the consultations with EPA by issuing a biological opinion (BIOP) with reasonable and prudent alternatives and incidental take statements if appropriate. This settlement orders BIOPs and take statements to be completed per a defined schedule with chlorpyrifos, malathion and diazinon first on the list with draft BIOPs publicly available on July 31, 2008 and finalized by October 31, 2008.
To read the draft BIOP for chlorpyrifos, malathion and diazinon click here.
It is not surprising that this draft BIOP finds jeopardy from the continued use of these products. This conclusion says as much about the lack of communication between the two agencies as it does about the products.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
National Marine Fisheries Services to Review Effects of Pesticides on Salmon and Steelhead
The National Marine Fisheries Services will review the effects of 37 pesticides on salmon and steelhead under a lawsuit settlement reached Wednesday with environmental and fishing groups.
By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter
The National Marine Fisheries Services will review the effects of 37 pesticides on salmon and steelhead under a lawsuit settlement reached Wednesday with environmental and fishing groups.
The federal fisheries agency will complete the reviews over a four-year period. The first deadlines are in October, when the agency is supposed to finalize three biological opinions on organophosphate pesticides.
Most of the 37 pesticides have been found in California and Pacific Northwest rivers used by salmon and steelhead. Currently, a court order requires farmers — as a temporary measure — to leave buffer strips between fields sprayed with these pesticides and many salmon streams, according to Joshua Osborne-Klein, an attorney for Earthjustice, which represents the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs include the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. They are hoping the studies will lead to new science-based measures to protect streams from pesticides that pose a risk to salmon and steelhead.
Earlier studies by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) indicate that trace amounts of one organophosphate insecticide — diazinon — can affect the salmon's nervous systems in levels as low as one to 10 parts per billion. Others studies have indicated that pesticides can affect swimming ability and growth.
"We are very encouraged by the fact that NMFS has agreed to go through this process but will remain vigilant," Osborne-Klein said.
