State Delegations - FIFRA

FIFRA = Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodendicide Act

Sec 23 – State Cooperation, Aid and Training

§23(a) – EPA may enter into cooperative agreements with states and Indian tribes and delegate them the authority to cooperate in the enforcement of FIFRA Environment Pesticide Control (Subch 4), train their personnel or assist them in implementing cooperative enforcement programs through grants-in-aid. The states have primary enforcement responsibility for pesticide use violations if the EPA determines that the state has adopted adequate pesticide use laws and regulations, and has adopted and implemented adequate procedures for their enforcement. The state must also keep records and make reports to EPA showing compliance. (§26a). If the state does not meet these requirements, the EPA will have primary enforcement responsibility.

§23(b) – EPA may enter in contracts with federal, state or Indian tribal agencies for encouraging the training of certified applicators.

Endangered Species – Endangered Species Protection Program, as an entity, started in 1988. It is largely voluntary at the present time and relies on cooperation between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), EPA Regions, States, and pesticide users. Endangered Species Act is intended to protect and promote the recovery of animals and plants that are in danger of becoming extinct due to the activities of people. Under the Act, EPA must ensure that use of pesticides it registers will not result in harm to the species listed as endangered and threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or to habitat critical to those species' survival.

Worker Protection – In 1992, the EPA promulgated worker safety regulations in order to protect the workers from risks posed by agricultural pesticides. The regulations cover not only workers performing hand labor operations in fields treated with pesticides, but also employees in forests, nurseries, greenhouses and employees who handle pesticides for use in these locations. The regulations require warnings about the applications, use of personal protective equipment, and restrictions on entry to treated areas.

Groundwater Protection – The objective of this program is to allow the continued use of needed pesticides that would otherwise have to be canceled due to the potential of the pesticides to cause harm to people or the environment. States that participate in this program have the option of preparing a generic State Management Plan to prevent and reduce the possibility of ground water pollution. When EPA publishes the names of pesticides in the Federal Register that will require a State Management Plan, the States will then prepare a specific State Management Plan for each pesticide that is listed. These management plans will specify what actions that will be taken, if pesticides are detected in the ground water, to allow the use of the pesticides, including the tools available and the response actions. States that choose not to prepare management plans will lose the use of the affected pesticides in their State.

Key to Abbreviations in Delegation Tables