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Important
New Correspondence from U.S. EPA In response to a letter from
Shasta MVCD District Manager Bill Hazeleur dated March 27, 2002 the office of
the Assistant Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) sent a letter updating the status of the issue of whether the NPDES
permitting process should apply to application of larval control products to
water for mosquito control. In that letter a new case which is now before
the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals was mentioned. EPA has been
specifically asked by the Court in the case of Altman v. the Town of Amherst to
address the issue of whether a city is required to have a NPDES permit to apply
pesticides "in, on or over federally regulated wetlands for the purpose of
mosquito control". The outcome of this case will directly affect how
the District can continue its integrated program of public health protection,
which includes the judicious use of chemical mosquito control products as needed
to control these important disease vectors and their larvae. This letter
was received by the District on July 1,2002. The EPA was asked on April
3,2002 to draft a position on this issue, which means that time may be running
out for mosquito control and other health agencies to provide input to the EPA
on the possible ramifications of the outcome of this case. This link will take you to this EPA Letter on NPDES permits as they relate to mosquito control. The letter is in .pdf format and can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat reader. In particular read the third to the last paragraph very carefully. The use of the words "in, on and over federally regulated wetlands" is particularly significant, as it would seem to include the use of products both for larval and adult mosquito control.
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