GCSAA Update

While the recent focus on pesticide products such as neonicotinoids has raged on at the state level, the federal government settled a lawsuit that may significantly alter the way we utilize pesticides in the golf industry.  As with so many changes in the regulatory environment, GCSAA’s Government Affairs team has been on top of the situation, quick to develop a valuable webinar to get you up to speed and continues to communicate with regulators keeping golf course superintendents at the table.  This outreach is not meant to panic our industry or shock superintendents into action.  Simply put, by early 2024 use of many registered products could be quite different, and the information below will help you understand why, and educate you on the potential changes coming your way.

EPA’s release begins with the statement below:

EPA Resolves Longstanding Litigation to Protect Endangered Species, Ensure Pesticides That Feed and Fuel America Remain Available

Released on September 14, 2023

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) resolved longstanding litigation covering over 1,000 pesticide products, allowing EPA to fulfill its obligations to protect endangered species while conducting reviews and approvals of pesticides in a safe and protective manner.

In 2011, the Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network (Plaintiffs) filed a complaint in Federal Court in California against EPA alleging that it was violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it registered or reevaluated the registration of 382 pesticide active ingredients, which was ultimately reduced to 35 active ingredients covering over 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. The settlement entered by the Court this week resolves all outstanding claims.

The plaintiff in the “megasuit”, Center for Biological Diversity, released (in part) the following:

Agreement Ends Decades of Pesticide Office Refusing to Comply with Endangered Species Act

SAN FRANCISCO— A historic legal agreement approved in federal district court yesterday afternoon commits the Environmental Protection Agency to a suite of proposed reforms to better protect endangered species from pesticides. The settlement, which covers more than 300 pesticide active ingredients, marks the culmination of the largest Endangered Species Act case ever filed against the EPA.

Under the agreement’s terms, the EPA will develop strategies to reduce the harm to endangered species from broad groups of pesticides, including herbicides and insecticides, while taking further steps to target meaningful, on-the-ground protections to endangered species most vulnerable to harm from pesticides.

These measures to reduce pesticide harms will benefit endangered species and humans alike, as these chemicals are linked to severe health harms in farmworkers and rural communities.

“Pesticides take a devastating toll on imperiled wildlife and are a driving factor in the current insect apocalypse,” said Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “After decades of inaction in the face of terrible harms, the EPA is now committed to much needed actions to protect endangered species, and with the judicial oversight necessary to ensure that changing political winds don’t wipe out lifesaving progress.”

Today’s legal agreement requires the EPA to develop a strategy to better protect endangered species from herbicides by 2024 and insecticides by 2025. The EPA recently released the draft herbicide strategy for public comment. The settlement also requires the EPA to address the harms of eight especially hazardous organophosphate insecticides on endangered species by 2027.

This didn’t happen overnight.  Lawsuits against the government for not acting upon the Endangered Species Act have piled up for DOZENS of years.  Unfortunately, actionable items as it pertains to the settlement of said lawsuits seemingly WILL happen overnight.

When it comes to pesticides….The Label is the Law.  So if we harken back to middle school math, if the Law changes…therefore the label changes.  How that label changes may alter how and where you can use many registered pesticides.

From amphibians to insects, fish, birds, mollusks, plants and mammals according to New Hampshire Fish and Wildlife service, there are 30 endangered species!  The location of those habitats is paramount to the future use of products in those areas.  Is your golf course within a habitat of any of those species?

There are EPA pilot programs currently being crafted to bring the agency into compliance with that settlement agreement.  Concerns relating to the use of products in the golf course maintenance industry are already being voiced and resources to help you understand this freight train of change are available NOW!

GCSAA’s webinar, “Endangered Species Act Workplan and Pilot Projects 101” outlines much of the above and provides the most up-to-date issues facing the golf course maintenance industry in regard to the EPA-ESA settlement.  The future fall out is complex, somewhat unclear, and happening extremely quickly.  On your next frosty morning follow the steps below and watch the webinar. 

·       GCSAA.org – Education tab – My Learning Hub – red button “Enter Learning Hub”

·       Under “Courses”, right side menu find “Government Affairs” – scroll and find “Endangered Species Act Workplan and Pilot Projects 101”

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