Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
Last week, Sens. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) introduced a bipartisan bill that seeks to eliminate redundant federal regulations on pesticides. The bill is known as the Sensible Environmental Protection Act, and it would clarify that Clean Water Act permits are not required for pesticide applications in or near water.
The senators say Clean Water Act permits are not necessary because the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA, has for decades created an effective and comprehensive regulatory web to provide environmental and public health protection. The process specifically examines a pesticide’s potential impact on water.
But a ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2009 allowed EPA to enact additional regulations on pesticide use under the Clean Water Act. The court’s decision allowed the EPA to create a level of regulation that duplicated requirements already in existence under federal pesticide law. Hagan and Crapo’s bill would eliminate this redundancy while leaving existing protections in place.
Click on the audio player below to listen to Commissioner Troxler and Rhonda discuss this topic and why Hagan and Crapo’s bill should be welcomed by taxpayers.
[Audio:http://info.ncagr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Troxler_4-30.mp3|titles=Today’s Topic for April 30]
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