JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (DTN) -- On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the release of its draft Insecticide Strategy, which is available for public comment for 60 days. The document outlines EPA plans to protect threatened and endangered species and their critical habitats from insecticides, moving the agency closer to meeting its obligations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

"Ensuring the safe use of insecticides is a critical part of EPA's mission to protect endangered species and the environment," said Jake Li, EPA deputy assistant administrator for pesticide programs. "This draft strategy is another major step in the administration's efforts to protect endangered species, support farmers and other insecticide users, and provide critical environmental protections for communities across the country."

The draft strategy identifies protections that EPA will consider when it registers a new insecticide or reevaluates an existing one. In developing this plan, EPA identified protections to address potential impacts for more than 850 species listed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS). It is the second such strategy, following the July 2023 release of the draft Herbicide Strategy.

In Thursday's EPA announcement, the agency stated that the draft Insecticide Strategy is part of its ongoing efforts to develop a more efficient, effective and protective multichemical, multispecies approach to meeting its ESA obligations. EPA focused the draft strategy on conventional insecticides used in agriculture in the lower 48 states, where approximately 34 million pounds of insecticides are applied each year.

"The draft identifies protections earlier in the pesticide review process, thus creating a far more efficient approach to evaluate and protect the FWS-listed species that live near these agricultural areas," the agency stated.

EPA noted that the draft Insecticide Strategy incorporates lessons learned from the draft Herbicide Strategy.

"For example, based on feedback on the draft Herbicide Strategy, EPA designed the mitigations in the draft Insecticide Strategy to maximize the number of options for farmers and other pesticide users," EPA wrote. "These mitigation options also consider farmers who are already implementing measures to reduce pesticide runoff and those who are located in areas less prone to pesticide runoff, such as flat lands and regions with less rain to carry pesticides off fields."

These measures also include USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service practices and state or private stewardship measures that are effective at reducing pesticide runoff, the agency said.

According to EPA, the draft Insecticide Strategy uses the most updated information and processes to determine whether an insecticide will affect a listed species and identify protections to address any effects. To determine effects, the draft strategy considers where a species lives, what it needs to reproduce (for example, food or pollinators), where the pesticide will end up in the environment and what kind of impacts the pesticide might have if it reaches the species.

"These refinements greatly reduce the need for pesticide restrictions in situations that do not benefit species," the agency wrote, adding that once final, the Insecticide Strategy will expedite future ESA consultations with FWS. Once EPA finalizes the Insecticide Strategy, the agency and FWS expect to formalize their understanding of how this strategy can inform and streamline future ESA consultations for insecticides.

Through a separate initiative, EPA is addressing potential effects of insecticides to listed species and critical habitats protected by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The release of the draft Insecticide Strategy is the latest development stemming from litigation against EPA that began more than a decade ago. In 2011, the Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network filed suit against the agency, alleging that it violated the ESA when it registered or reevaluated the registration of 382 pesticide active ingredients.

Ultimately, the list of active ingredients was reduced to 35, covering more than 1,000 pesticide products containing one or more of these active ingredients. This became known as the "megasuit" because of the number of pesticides it covered.

In September 2023, EPA reached a settlement agreement, which set deadlines for these pesticide strategies. The final version of the Herbicide Strategy, originally set to be released on May 30, 2024, is now due by Aug. 30, 2024. The final version of the Insecticide Strategy is expected to be issued by March 2025. While no deadlines have been set for the completion of a final Fungicide Strategy, the determination of such a deadline is expected to take place no later than August 2024.

The draft Insecticide Strategy and accompanying support documents are available here: https://www.regulations.gov/….

The deadline to submit comments is Sept. 23, 2024.

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Jason Jenkins can be reached at jason.jenkins@dtn.com

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