Assessing Effects of New Pesticides on Listed Species
As of January 11, 2022, before registering any new conventional pesticide active ingredient (AI), EPA will evaluate its potential effects on federally listed endangered and threatened (i.e., listed) species and their designated critical habitats and initiate Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and/or the National Marine Fisheries Service (the Services), as appropriate.
If EPA finds through its analyses that a new conventional pesticide AI is likely to adversely affect listed species or their designated critical habitats, EPA will initiate formal consultation with the Services before granting a registration for a product containing a new AI. As part of its analysis and under its existing authorities, EPA will consider the likelihood that the registration action may jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or adversely modify their designated critical habitat and provide its findings to the Services. To determine or predict the potential effects of a pesticide on these species and habitats, EPA will use appropriate ecological assessment principles and apply what it has learned from effects determinations and the Services’ biological opinions and other relevant documents.
If EPA determines that jeopardy or adverse modification is likely, the Agency will only make a registration decision on the new AI after requiring registrants to implement mitigation measures that allow EPA to predict that jeopardy or adverse modification is not likely. If EPA finds that a new AI is likely to adversely affect listed species or their critical habitat, but that jeopardy/adverse modification is not likely, the Agency may nonetheless require registrants to include measures on their registration and product labeling to minimize unintentional harm (i.e. “take”) to listed species that could result from use of a pesticide. In both situations, formal consultation with the Services is still necessary. Further, EPA may determine that it is necessary for registrants to incorporate a link to Bulletins Live! Two—an online system that describes pesticide use limitations by geographic area—into the product’s labeling.
Mitigations may include measures intended to reduce the amount of pesticide that may leave a treated field, restrict the geographic or temporal scope of pesticide applications, and reduce maximum application rates or number of applications allowed on a treated site.
EPA looks forward to collaborating with stakeholders to ensure that meaningful measures are put into place to protect listed species from pesticides.
For more information on EPA’s policy for new conventional pesticide active ingredients, see the announcement and the ESA Policy for New Active Ingredients: Q&A (pdf) .