![[logo] US EPA](../gif/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
EPA Response to Petition by Growers for Endangered Species Act Transparency
For Release: June 2, 2014EPA is responding to a petition submitted by Growers for Endangered Species Act Transparency. The petition, received in 2010, requested that EPA take action to establish clear and equitable procedures for notice and comment on EPA’s pesticide effects determinations for endangered species and other related actions.
Transparency and stakeholder involvement are a vital part of EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment. EPA has taken steps to address the concerns raised in the petition through a number of projects.
- Working with our federal partners, the Department of Agriculture, and the National Marine Fisheries and Fish and Wildlife Services (known collectively as the Services) the EPA committed, in 2012, to enhancing the stakeholder input (PDF) during the process of registration review.
- In 2013, we received the NAS report, Assessing Risks to Endangered and Threatened Species from Pesticides, which had been commissioned by those same 4 agencies in an effort to resolve some of our scientific challenges.
- Since then, EPA, the Services and USDA have held two public workshops (in November 2013 and April 2014) to inform stakeholders about our progress implementing recommendations from the report and we plan to continue soliciting comments from stakeholders. The purpose of those two meetings was to provide scientific and technical feedback on the joint interim approaches for ESA consultations
To read EPA’s response to the petition, go to docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2010-0854 at www.regulations.gov.