EPA rejects request to delay pesticide safety rule

EPA's farmworker protection rule will go into effect Jan. 2 as scheduled, the agency said today.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) and American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) petitioned EPA last week to delay implementation by a year. EPA said it would respond officially to the petition in the new year.

The groups said EPA had failed to provide state lead agencies, or SLA's, with needed training materials and guidance, and had not properly alerted Congress to the presence of the “designated representative” provision in the rule.

That provision allows farmworkers to choose a third party to receive pesticide use records from a farm. Farm groups and their members are worried that anti-pesticide groups could gain access to the records and “make it seem as if (the farmers) are doing something illegal,” said Paul Schlegel, director of environment and energy policy at AFBF.

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