WASHINGTON— The Environmental Protection Agency today issued seven-year reapprovals for both Enlist Duo and Enlist One for use on conventional and genetically engineered corn, cotton and soybeans.
Enlist Duo is an herbicide cocktail containing the active
ingredients 2,4-D and glyphosate; Enlist One contains only 2,4-D. Both products
are widely used on crops genetically altered to withstand what would normally
be a fatal dose of the chemicals.
The agency also announced that for the first time it had
evaluated the pesticides’ impacts on endangered wildlife and was putting in
place measures to protect dozens of protected species from harm.
“It’s good that the EPA is finally putting at least some
on-the-ground measures in place to protect the nation’s most endangered species
from these highly toxic products,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health
director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “But we’re deeply concerned
that the agency failed to complete consultation with the Fish and Wildlife
Service during this process, and we hope that the Service will step in quickly
to ensure that the nation’s most endangered plants and animals are adequately
protected.”
The new measures to protect endangered species represent a
sharp departure from the previous registration of Enlist Duo in 2014. At that
time the EPA declared, without engaging in formal Endangered Species Act
consultation, that the chemical cocktail would cause no harm to any endangered
species.
Key protective measures include prohibiting use of the
products where they may harm or kill endangered species in the field. That
change effectively bans their use on about 3% of corn acreage, 8% of cotton acreage
and 2% of soybean acreage.
However, the EPA has made its determinations about how to
protect endangered species without the legally required final input from the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the nation’s expert wildlife agency.
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