Should we reduce the number of permits needed to discharge pesticides into navigable waters?

This bill has Passed the House of Representatives
Bill Summary

This bill amends the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (otherwise known as the Clean Water Act) to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency or state from requiring permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) to discharge pesticides from a point source (e.g. pipe, channel, or tunnel) into navigable waters, if the discharge is approved under FIFRA. Sponsor: Rep. Gibbs, Bob [R-OH-7]
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Opponents say

·     This is yet another attempt to eliminate protections guaranteed under the Clean Water Act under the guise of relieving regulatory burdens.
·     FIFRA does not, by itself, take into consideration the conditions of the specific areas where pesticides will be sprayed, and therefore does not do enough to protect the citizens who live in these areas.
·     The Clean Water Act permit for pesticides is essential to an informed public and the protection of our water.

Proponents say

·      Regulations in agriculture “make agricultural production and innovation more difficult by limiting farmers’ and ranchers’ ability to address agricultural risk, work their land, and meet market needs”.
·     The federal and state permits required under FIFRA and the Clean Water Act are redundant and consequently, (unnecessarily) costly for farmers, who simply want to responsibly protect their crops.
·      Farmers should not be required to obtain NPDES’s point source permits to use pesticides already approved for use under FIFRA.