----- forwarded message -----
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 07:39:29 -0700
From: Teresa Binstock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Administration to Seek Exemptions to 2005 Ban of a Pesticide (ozone effect)
Administration to Seek Exemptions to 2005 Ban of a Pesticide
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/national/30OZON.html
The Bush administration is moving to help industries keep using a pesticide that
is to be banned under an international agreement to restore the earth's
protective ozone layer, several government officials say.
Administration officials say they are prepared to ask that some of the pesticide
users, which include farmers and golf course operators, be exempted from the ban
on the pesticide, methyl bromide, called for in 2005 under the international
treaty. The officials say the exemptions are justified under the treaty's
language because there are no effective substitutes to methyl bromide and
businesses would be harmed.
But advocates for the environment say that if too many exemptions are granted,
efforts to undo damage to the ozone layer will be set back by years. They said
exemptions from the ban would generally undermine the agreement, the Montreal
Protocol, a 15-year-old pact that is widely perceived as the most effective
environmental treaty ever negotiated.
The debate leaves the administration caught between the demands of the
industries, the obligations of the protocol, which the United States signed, and
the need to limit political damage from persistent criticism of its
environmental policies.
The White House has until tomorrow to decide how many exemptions to request from
the international environmental body that administers the treaty, the Ozone
Secretariat of the United Nations Environment Program.
Fifty-six requests for exemptions have been made to the administration, totaling
about 26 million pounds of methyl bromide. Senior government officials said that
while no decision had been made on how many requests to submit to the United
Nations committee, they saw no reason to limit the number as long as each was
justified.
Under a timetable set by the treaty, industrialized countries have steadily
decreased use of methyl bromide since 1999 and are to end all use by 2005,
except in situations where there are no effective substitutes or markets would
be disrupted.
The 56 applications for "critical-use exemptions" that have been submitted to
the the Environmental Protection Agency are from agricultural groups and
businesses as varied as chrysanthemum and strawberry growers, flour millers,
universities, and golf-course groomers. The applications are at epa.gov/spdpublc
/mbr/cue_summaries.html.
A senior federal official involved with assessing the proposed exemptions said
that most of the agricultural users had legitimate reasons.
"I think they have a case for needing it," said the official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. "The Montreal Protocol has expressed in this exemption
the notion that there are cases where the impact of losing the chemical is so
great that they won't force the ban on people."
Some countries plan to join the United States in seeking many exemptions,
including Australia and Spain. But government officials in other countries,
including Britain, said they planned to strictly limit their proposed exemptions
to insure that overall use of the gas continued to fall.
"A critical use should be a critical use," said one European government
official. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that
exemptions granted for other ozone-depleting substances were extraordinarily
limited. One allows continued use of banned CFC's in powering asthma inhalers.
Methyl chloroform, another banned chemical, is still allowed for cleaning the
O-rings on the space shuttle's booster rockets.
In a related effort, the American Farm Bureau, Florida State officials and other
lobbying groups wrote members of Congress this week seeking an amendment that
would allow the use of methyl bromide to rise 20 percent from the amount
currently permitted under federal law and the treaty.
Environmental groups say the chemical needs to be banned and the treaty honored.
They are pressing the White House to greatly reduce the exemption requests,
pointing to some businesses that are seeking to increase, not simply maintain,
their use of the chemical.
"If the Bush administration abandons the phase-out of methyl bromide, the safer
alternatives will wither on the vine, and the hole in the ozone layer will keep
growing," said David Doniger, an expert in international environmental policy at
the Natural Resources Defense Council. Companies producing substitutes contend
that any significant exemptions will simply delay shifts toward other methods of
controlling pests.
Methyl bromide is one of a variety of chemicals that are being phased out under
the treaty because they break down the high-altitude veil of ozone molecules
that blocks harmful ultraviolet rays. This shield had diminished significantly
by the 1980's, and still disappears almost entirely over large areas of both
poles in certain seasons.
Scientists say that the continued reductions in the use of the ozone-depleting
compounds, dominated by chlorofluorocarbons, or CFC's, should lead to
restoration of the layer later in the century.
Methyl bromide is a much more potent destroyer of ozone, molecule for molecule,
than are CFC's, but unlike those compounds does not persist long in the air and
is also much rarer. Over all, scientists have estimated it accounts for no more
than 7 percent of the total erosion of the ozone layer.
Once submitted, any exemptions sought by the United States and other
industrialized countries will be reviewed this spring by a technical panel
consisting of three dozen experts, including American government scientists. The
panel will take recommendations to the Ozone Secretariat, which represents the
interests of the 160 signers of the treaty, who make the final decision. .
Administration officials said they were concerned that the isolation of the
United States on other international issues, including the Kyoto climate treaty
and the possible attack on Iraq, could result in the exemptions being rejected
even if they are justified.
Methyl bromide is a toxic gas that has been used since the 1960's to sterilize
soils, fumigate grain-milling operations, and treat exports and imports to kill
invasive pests. It kills weeds, insects, nematodes and all manner of other
pests.
Under the Montreal treaty, industrialized countries agreed to a 25-percent
reduction below the amount used in 1991 starting in 1999; a 50-percent drop,
from that level starting in 2002; a 70-percent reduction starting in 2003; and
finally the 100-percent ban starting in 2005. The United States has been meeting
its reduction goals set out in the treaty. (Developing countries have a 10-year
delay before they must stop using the gas.)
Applications from American companies include some that are very small, like that
from Stroope Bee and Honey Company of Alvin, Tex., which seeks to continue using
about 400 pounds of the chemical in 2005 and beyond to prevent moths from
attacking honeycombs.
"I know of nothing else that will even come close to controlling the greater wax
moth in stored honey combs," said Garland Stroope, the business owner, in his
application.
But they also include requests for large, and increasing, uses of the chemical.
Auburn University in Alabama is seeking to use 542,408 pounds of methyl bromide
a year on 1,600 acres where it plants tree seedlings, saying it has found "no
possible alternatives."
The California Grape & Tree Fruit League, in Fresno, has submitted a request for
its membership to use 1,579,500 pounds of methyl bromide annually after 2005,
although its members typically used less than 650,000 pounds of the chemical in
the late 1990's.
In interviews, several government officials involved with compiling the
applications said there are other important issues to consider when weighing the
importance of the chemical to a particular business.
Mexico is among countries that compete with American farmers in fruit and
vegetable trade that are exempt from the methyl bromide ban for another decade,
officials said. These countries also use cheap labor to clear fields of weeds
that American growers clear with methyl bromide. Labor in this country is too
costly for that task. "Methyl bromide helps level the playing field," said a
senior Department of Agriculture official.
Marco Gonzalez, the executive secretary of the Montreal Protocol, said he was
confident that the international review of exemptions from the methyl bromide
ban would be fair and not roll back efforts to repair the ozone layer.
"The Montreal Protocol so far has been a success story and is paving the way to
other conventions," Mr. Gonzalez said. "We don't see any reason why progress and
success should not continue."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
> The material in this post is distributed without profit to those who have
> expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research
> and educational purposes. For more information go to:
> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
>
> If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for purposes that
> go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner
