In the ongoing saga of the organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos, its registration is facing multiple new challenges on a variety of fronts. On the Federal level, attention is focused on the years-long pending Petition to Cancel filed with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) by the Natural Resource Defense Council (“NRDC”) and the Pesticide Action Network of North America (“PANNA”). On the state level, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (“CDPR”) has announced its intention to cancel all registrations of chlorpyrifos, and the state of New York appears headed to enacting a legislative ban on its registration in New York.

Petition to Cancel EPA Registrations

            The Petition to Cancel was filed in 2007.  Its history and related litigation is recounted in the prior blog entry EPA Obtains Stay of Execution for Chlorpyrifos from 9thCircuit Court of Appeals. On 2017 EPA had announced that, contrary to staff recommendation to cancel the registrations of chlorpyrifos, it was denying the Petition. See 82 Fed. Reg. 16581 (April 5, 2017).  EPA announced that more data was required to make a decision and therefore a final determination on the safety of chlorpyrifos the review would not be completed until 2022.

            Petitioners, joined by five states and the District of Columbia, sought to have the 9thCircuit Court of Appeals compel EPA to grant the Petition and cancel the registration. Initially a three-judge panel of the 9thCircuit ordered EPA to cancel the registrations and tolerances for chlorpyrifos. See League of United Latin American Citizens et al v. Wheeler, 899 F. 3d 814 (9thCir.). EPA then sought rehearing by the full 9thCircuit. Following argument before the full panel, the Court on April 19, 2019 revoked the prior opinion and issued a Writ of Mandamus ordering EPA to respond to the Petition within 90 days, making the deadline approximately July 19.

           Given that EPA determined in its Revised Human Health Hazard Assessment and Drinking Water Exposure Assessment for Chlorpyrifos [November 2016] to revoke all food residue tolerances for chlorpyrifos, EPA will face an uphill challenge if it wishes to maintain the chlorpyrifos registrations. It is certain that anything short of a full cancellation will bring this matter back before the 9thCircuit.

California and New York Actions

            California and New York have determined that they will not await the outcome of EPA determination on the Petition and through different channels are both moving to terminate chlorpyrifos in their respective states. 

           In California, CDPR announced on May 8, 2019 that it intends to initiate cancellation proceedings for all chlorpyrifos registrations. It remains to be seen whether registrants or agricultural interests challenge the proposed cancellations.

           In New York, which is one of the intervenor states in the LULAC matter, as of April 30, 2019, both houses of the legislature have passed a bill which would in three stages eliminate all uses of chlorpyrifos by December 1, 2021. See S. 5343; A-2477B. Aerial application would be prohibited as of January 1, 2020, following which all uses except applications to apple tree trunks would end as of January 1, 2021. The apple tree use would then end December 1, 2021. While the New York Farm Bureau is on record opposing the legislation, the governor has given no indication of whether he will sign the bill. If he does so, opponents would likely have no recourse. Section 24(a) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”), 7 USC §136v(a), expressly authorizes states to regulate pesticides more strictly than EPA. That authority leaves opponents with little ground upon which to mount any challenge.

May 10, 2019