Endangered Species Act

August 23, 2023

EPA risking endangered species by allowing increased cadmium pollution, judge rules

By Shannon Kelleher

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is failing to protect endangered species such as sea turtles and sturgeon by allowing sharp increases in levels of toxic cadmium in US waters, a federal judge has ruled.

The court decision, handed down Aug. 18 in the US District Court for the District of Arizona, sided with the environmental group the Center for Biological Diversity, which argued in a 2022 lawsuit that the EPA violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it failed to determine whether allowing a 188% increase in chronic freshwater exposure to the heavy metal would harm already endangered aquatic animals and organisms.

Acute cadmium exposure has been found to cause increased mortality in certain organisms, while chronic exposure has been shown to impact growth, reproduction, immune and endocrine systems, development, and behavior of wildlife.

Federal law requires the EPA to consult with expert wildlife agencies, such as the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Services, when taking actions that can put endangered species at risk. The lawsuit alleged the agency failed to do the necessary consultations in the cadmium case.

“The EPA can no longer refuse to consult with wildlife agencies when it develops nationwide water-quality criteria. It has to follow the Endangered Species Act,” said Hannah Connor, environmental health deputy director and senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. “That’s a game-changer for the health of the country’s rivers and streams and the freshwater plants and animals that depend on them.”

The EPA will likely appeal the decision, Connor said. But if the agency accepts the ruling, it will begin an additional rulemaking process to update its cadmium criteria while consulting with other agencies to make its criteria more protective of endangered species, she said.

June 7, 2023

Advocacy groups sue EPA after agency re-approved two highly toxic weed killers

By Shannon Kelleher

Environmental and workers’ rights groups this week filed a lawsuit alleging a federal agency failed to properly consider risks to public health and the environment when it re-approved two highly toxic herbicides.

Enlist One and Enlist Duo, which are sprayed on crops across the US, contain chemicals that jeopardize the health of rural communities and farmworkers and threaten hundreds of endangered species, native plants, and local waterways, the groups warn. They also say the products can increase damage to nearby crops and exacerbate the problem of herbicide-resistant weeds. In January 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-approved the weed killers’ product registrations for seven more years.

“Farmworkers and rural communities are experiencing significant health effects from Enlist herbicides,” said Mily Trevino-Sauceda, Executive Director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, which advocates for farmworkers’ rights, in a press release. “EPA’s registration decision shows an utter disregard for public health.”

In their complaint, the Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network North America, and Alianza Nacional de Campesinas allege that the agency violated both the the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it re-approved the herbicides, understating the chemicals’ dangers and neglecting to consult the US Fish and Wildlife Service before moving forward.

“We’re asking the court to order EPA to properly consider the risks before approving these two harmful herbicides and to consult with the expert wildlife agencies,” said Kristina Sinclair, an attorney with the Center for Food Safety.

March 27, 2023

Letter to the EPA: Take action on “Devil’s bargain” pesticides

An Open Letter to: Michael Regan, Administrator; Michal Freedhoff, Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention; and Ed Messina, Office of Pesticide Programs Director, Environmental Protection Agency

The environment needs protection from neonicotinoid-coated pesticidal seeds, which are by far the greatest single insecticide application across the country, covering more than 100 million acres. Fundamental ecosystem integrity, plus the welfare of millions of birds and other animals where the coated seeds are planted, are at risk. You can be the difference makers if you seize the opportunity.

You know, as we NGO-types have recited to you in the past through broadly-supported letters and petitions, that a major body of evidence now shows neonic-coated seeds are the Devil’s bargain. While there may be some effective uses, they are mostly used prophylactically with no assessment of need. And yet they do great harm to essential pollinators, beneficial insects, and farmland birds, while contaminating the environment with their toxins.

In Ontario, Canada, when farmers were compelled to prove they needed to use neonic-coated seeds before being allowed by the provincial government, their use declined by a huge margin with no adverse economic effect.

Neonics have largely been banned in Europe since 2015. But, in the US, their excess production as a result of your agency’s leniency is a waste that resulted in the ongoing tragedy in Mead, Nebraska, where AltEn gathered about 80,000 tons of unwanted neonic-coated seeds in order to distill them for ethanol but instead ending up contaminating the environment to the tune of roughly $100 million in total damages. EPA’s uncritical approval of these seeds enabled the Mead disaster.

Of all the environmental threats in the United States, pesticides are conceptually the easiest to prevent because all the approved products out there resulted from registrations by your agency. But I am not asking you to cancel registrations, I am just asking you to take a closer look at EPA’s interpretation and regulatory issues that have allowed the harms of neonic-coated seeds to spin out of control.

A polar bear stands against a gray, snowy backdrop.

February 22, 2023

At least 330 species across the globe contaminated with PFAS

A class of chemicals linked to multiple health hazards in humans have been detected in hundreds of wildlife species across the United States, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The report was released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) along with a map demonstrating that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, are contaminating wildlife on every continent except Antarctica.

The data adds to several other reports of PFAS contamination in wildlife, and adds to the mounting concerns many researchers have about the long-term health and sustainability of important ecosystems.

“It’s a shocking wake-up call that much more needs to be done to protect wildlife … from the impacts of industrial chemicals,” said David Andrews, a senior scientist at EWG and an author of the report.

PFAS are a class of chemicals used in a wide array of industries and products. They are often referred to as ‘forever chemicals’ because they don’t break down in the environment. The chemicals have been linked to an array of human health problems, including certain cancers, reproductive issues and developmental problems.

The map showing the extent of the contamination in wildlife reflects data from 125 peer-reviewed studies of a wide range of species, including fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. PFAS contamination has been documented in polar bears in the Arctic Circle, tigers in China, plankton off the coast of Panama, crocodiles in South Africa, and many more species.

October 13, 2022

Endangered Species Act failures offer “cautionary tale”

by Shannon Kelleher

The strongest US conservation law lacks the resources to help most imperiled species fully recover, according to a new study. While thousands of species have been listed by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) since it was passed in 1973, only 54 have recovered to the point where they no longer require protection.

The study suggests that the failures of this law, which remains one of the strongest conservation measures in the world, stem from insufficient funding and a tendency to offer protection too late, when population sizes have already severely diminished.

“For decades, the agency that is primarily responsible for operationalizing the ESA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, has been starved for resources,” said Erich Eberhard, a researcher at Columbia University and an author of the study. “As a result, we are slow to give species the protections they deserve, typically waiting until they are extremely rare, with very small population sizes, and thus at extreme risk of extinction.”

“The Fish and Wildlife Service needs more resources to be able to process petitions more quickly and get species listed sooner,” he added.

The findings may offer lessons for the upcoming United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which will convene in December with the intent to finalize a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. The framework would help conserve the estimated one million plant and animal species at risk for extinction worldwide due to human activities.

September 23, 2022

US EPA to withdraw interim registration review decision for glyphosate

By Shannon Kelleher and Carey Gillam

US regulators on Friday said they would withdraw all remaining portions of the interim registration review decision for the weed killer glyphosate.

The move comes after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion saying EPA had violated the law in its assessment of glyphosate, which is the world’s most widely used weed killer and the active ingredient in Roundup and numerous other herbicide products.

The court found that EPA had ignored important studies in its human health safety assessment of the chemical and had also violated the Endangered Species Act. The EPA’s withdrawal comes before an October 1 deadline under which the agency was supposed to have completed its assessment. EPA had asked the court to extend its deadline but the court denied the request.

In its June 17 opinion, the 9th circuit said the agency’s 2020 assessment of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, was flawed in many ways. The federal appeals court ruled that EPA failed to follow established guidelines for determining cancer risk, ignored important studies, and discounted expert advice from a scientific advisory panel. The EPA applied “inconsistent reasoning” in finding that the chemical does not pose “any reasonable risk to man or the environment,” the panel determined.

The court vacated the human health portion of the EPA’s glyphosate assessment and said the agency needed to apply “further consideration” to evidence. The 9th Circuit also said the agency violated the Endangered Species Act in its assessment.