Środowisko i energia · 9/3/2004

Pesticides; Emergency Exemption Process Revisions

EPA is proposing several revisions to its regulations governing emergency exemptions that allow unregistered uses of pesticides to address emergency pest conditions for a limited time. The first significant change would allow applicants for certain repeat exemptions a simple way to re-certify that the emergency conditions that initially qualified for an exemption continue to exist in the second and third years. The second significant proposal would re-define significant economic loss and adjust the data requirements for documenting the loss. These proposed revisions would streamline and improve the application and review process by reducing the burden to both applicants and the EPA, allowing for quicker decisions by the Agency, and providing for more consistently equitable determinations of "significant economic loss" as the basis for an emergency. These two proposals are currently being employed in limited pilot programs. In addition, EPA is proposing several minor revisions to the regulations to clarify that quarantine exemptions may be used for control of invasive species, and to update or revise certain administrative aspects of the regulations. All of these proposed revisions