By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
As part of a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for allowing the re-registration of chlorpyrifos in 2017, a panel of judges in California has ordered the agency to explain its action in fewer than 90 days.
According to court documents, EPA must issue a “full and fair decision” on the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) 2007 petition to cancel chlorpyrifos registrations for food tolerances.
The groups claim the pesticide contaminates water, poisons foods and endangers the lives of agricultural workers and their families.
In 2017, EPA denied the petition.
That action by then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reversed a plan by the Obama administration to ban all household uses of the ingredient.
“We need to provide regulatory certainty to the thousands of American farms that rely on chlorpyrifos, while still protecting human health and the environment,” Pruitt said at the time. “By reversing the previous administration’s steps to ban one of the most widely used pesticides in the world, we are returning to using source science in decision making—rather than pre-determined results.”
LULAC and organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Pesticide Action Network North America filed suit against the EPA to force it to revoke all food tolerances and cancel registrations for chlorpyrifos.
They won, but following an appeal by EPA, a court vacated that ruling. That pushed the case to the Court of Appeals in California, which issued the decision Friday, April 19.
In its order, the court retained its jurisdiction over the case and any others that are related.
The organophosphate pesticide chlorpyrifos is the main ingredient in Lorsban.
Since 1965, it has been used by farmers, on golf courses, in greenhouses, in ant bait and on utility poles and fence posts.
It is currently used on more than 50 crops, including corn and soybeans. For some crops, there are no reliable substitutes for chlorpyrifos.