Mega lawsuit filed over pesticides and ESA consultation

Farm and Ranch January 24, 2011 The Center for Biological Diversity and the Pesticide Action Network North America have done it. They have filed a legal action suing the Environmental Protection Agency for its failure to consult with federal wildlife officials regarding the impact of hundreds of pesticides it claims are known to harm more than 200 endangered and threatened species. The species in the suit are found in every state but Alaska, with several species in Pacific Northwest states.

This is the pending lawsuit, now a reality, that Washington Association of Wheat Growers President Ben Barstow described in our story on the Endangered Species Act consultation process a week ago.

Barstow: “There is a pending lawsuit out there that could pretty well eliminate all uses of pesticides.”

It is the Pacific Northwest endangered salmon consultation issue and its potential spray buffers taken nationwide. Earlier this month Jim Cowles of the Washington State Department of Agriculture told a panel of state lawmakers just how successful this legal strategy is for environmentalists.

Cowles: “This is a slam dunk legal argument now for looking at pesticide registrations across the United States. And it has been upheld in at least five or six other lawsuits.”

Cowles said it was the Washington Toxic Coalition lawsuit of 2002 that set that legal cornerstone.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.