For Immediate Release, March 15, 2013
Contact: Jeff Miller, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 669-7357
SAN FRANCISCO— A federal district court in San Francisco will hear arguments today in the most comprehensive legal action ever brought under the Endangered Species Act to protect imperiled animals from pesticides. The Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network North America are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to assess the impacts of hundreds of pesticides known to be harmful to more than 200 endangered and threatened species.
Today’s hearing addresses motions filed by the EPA and pesticide industry groups to dismiss the lawsuit.
“For decades, the EPA has turned a blind eye to the disastrous effects pesticides have on some of America’s rarest species,” said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center. “We’re trying to make sure the EPA does its legal and moral duty to make sure harmful chemicals aren’t sprayed in the same places where these vulnerable wild animals are trying to survive.”
The lawsuit seeks protection from harmful pesticides for 212 endangered and threatened species throughout the United States, including Florida panthers, California condors, piping plovers, black-footed ferrets, arroyo toads, Indiana bats, bonytail chubs and Alabama sturgeon. Documents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and EPA, as well as peer-reviewed scientific studies, show that these species can be harmed by the more than 300 pesticides at issue.
Despite the well-documented risks of pesticides to hundreds of imperiled species, for decades the EPA has “registered,” that is permitted pesticide uses, without required consultations with expert federal agencies to properly study their impacts. This noncompliance prevents the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service from evaluating pesticide risks and restricting pesticide uses known to be harmful to protected species.
After the filing of this lawsuit in 2011, the EPA and the two federal wildlife agencies requested that the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council examine the agencies’ joint responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act and provide recommendations regarding how best to complete the consultation process under the Act. The final Academy report is expected this month.
Today’s hearing, before Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero, will be at 9:30 a.m. at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, Courtroom G – 15th Floor, in San Francisco. The hearing is open to the public. Center attorney Collette Adkins Giese will be available after the hearing to discuss the case. To arrange an interview, please call (651) 955-3821.
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