Budget Trailer Bill Fight
The Ag Council has joined 57 other agricultural organizations in opposing two proposals that are being inserted into the current budget debate. The first is an attempt to undo an August 2008 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision by requiring the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to dramatically reduce the amount of plant protection materials that are allowed to be used in San Joaquin Valley and other important agricultural areas of the state. Since the plaintiffs lost in court, they are attempting to undo the court’s decision by slipping this important issue into the budget process although this is clearly not a fiscal matter. A decision has been rendered by the courts and DPR has already implemented a regulation that is reducing volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) emissions.
The second proposal is to transfer pesticide risk assessment functions from DPR to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). DPR operates an integrated program of risk assessment for pesticides in California. This multi-disciplinary approach encompasses and assesses dietary, workplace, residential and ecological risk across air, water and land. Transferring the risk assessment functions to OEHHA will fragment, and subsequently compromise DPR’s programs.
DPR has a formal re-evaluation program under which all reports of actual or potentially significant adverse effects to people or the environment, resulting from the use of pesticides, must be investigated. Re-evaluation is often triggered by ongoing departmental registration reviews, state and county pesticide use surveillance and illness investigations, pesticide residue sample analyses, or environmental monitoring activities. The transfer of risk assessment, from DPR to OEHHA, will only serve to dismantle a well functioning program best equipped to handle a robust and continuous evaluation process.
Pesticide Discharges
The Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region (Regional Water Board) staff will hold a public meeting to discuss amendments to the Basin Plan for the control of discharges of pesticides into selected surface waters in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. The meeting will be held on July 23. The primary goal of the Pesticide Basin Plan Amendment is to provide a clear regulatory framework for the protection of aquatic life from pesticide run-off. The amendments will focus on those pesticides that have the greatest potential to impact aquatic life. The regulatory framework under consideration will include beneficial uses, site specific numeric water quality objectives, implementation policies, and monitoring requirements. Regional Board staff will work closely with the Department of Pesticide Regulation, County Agricultural Commissioners, and U.S. EPA to ensure that
efforts to regulate pesticide discharge and pesticide use are as mutually supportive as possible.
Additional information about this project is available on the Regional Water Board’s website at:
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralvalley/water_issues/tmdl/central_valley_projects/central_valley_pesticides/index.shtml
Food Safety
SB 173 was heard in, and passed out of, the Assembly Committee on Health this week. This bill allows the Department of Public Health to create a voluntary food safety recall program. Senator Florez said during the hearing that he intends to “fill the gaps” of what the Obama Administration does not cover in its food safety bill, which is now moving through Congress. He also expressed his frustration that his Senate colleagues required him to make the bill voluntary for it to move through the Senate. This bill will be heard at the Assembly Ag Committee on July 1.
Climate Change
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson struck a deal with Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman on Climate Change. Chairman Peterson was successful in negotiating an ag & forestry offset program implemented at USDA. The ag & forestry sectors will also be exempt from the bill’s greenhouse gas emission reduction requirements. Though Congressman Peterson was successful in obtaining this amendment, there are still many concerns with the underlying bill. More information on this amendment can be found on the House Ag Committee’s website at: http://agriculture.house.gov/index.shtml.
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