To:	Members & Affiliates; Pretreatment & Pollution Prevention Committee; Water Quality Committee
From:	National Office
Date:	October 20, 2008
Subject:	EPA PROPOSES NEW PESTICIDE REQUIREMENTS TO PROTECT CLEAN WATER AGENCIES, WATER QUALITY
Reference:	RA 08-05

 

Action Please By:
December 12, 2008

 

Reversing its long-standing belief that antimicrobial pesticides used in homes and businesses (including products like toilet cleaners, disinfectant sprays, etc.) would not impact water quality due to ‘dilution and degradation’, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) is proposing a requirement that pesticide manufacturers submit a significant amount of new information on the antimicrobial products they wish to market in the United States.  EPA’s October 8, 2008, Federal Register notice acknowledges that residual amounts of these ‘down-the-drain’ pesticides may be impacting wastewater treatment plant processes and making their way into biosolids and the environment.

NACWA is currently reviewing the proposed rule and is soliciting feedback and comments on the proposal from its members.  The fate models and much of the background information for the proposal are extremely technical and NACWA is determining whether an outside expert will be needed to help in the Association’s review of the materials.  Comments on the proposal are due to EPA by January 6, 2009, so NACWA is asking members to provide comments to Chris Hornback, NACWA at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by Friday, December 12, 2008, to assist in developing the Association’s comments on the rule.

Background

Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), every pesticide product must be registered with EPA or specifically exempted before being sold or distributed in the U.S.  Under FIFRA, an applicant for a new registration or an existing registrant must demonstrate that, among other things, the pesticide when used properly, will not cause “unreasonable adverse effects” to humans or the environment.  FIFRA requires that all registered pesticides be reviewed periodically to ensure they continue to meet this standard. 

When it first developed its data requirements for pesticides, EPA did not account for the unique uses of antimicrobial pesticides and did not require any fate information for those pesticides used indoors, assuming that anything that made its way down the drain to a wastewater treatment plant would have little impact due to dilution, degradation along the way, and eventual treatment.  As a result of recent studies and a coordinated campaign by many water and wastewater authorities primarily in California, EPA has become increasingly aware of the presence of these indoor-use antimicrobial pesticides in the environment.  Based on new concerns about the impact of antimicrobials on the wastewater treatment process and on aquatic life, EPA now believes that new environmental fate data requirements are needed for down-the-drain antimicrobial pesticide uses ^{[1 ]}.

Summary of EPA Proposal

EPA is proposing to add nine new data, and revise existing, requirements to collect the information needed to conduct a screening-level assessment of the fate of these pesticides during the registration and periodic review processes.  Five of the data requirements (including developmental neurotoxicity and immunotoxicity) are already required of conventional pesticides, but four new data requirements are being proposed specifically for antimicrobial pesticides to help EPA assess their impact on the wastewater treatment process.  Using these new data, the screening-level assessment will evaluate the following:

1. Modeling will be used to estimate the exposure concentration of the antimicrobial in a surface water body receiving effluent from a wastewater treatment plant.  EPA is proposing to use the Down-the-Drain model with the Probabilistic Dilution Model (PDM) option in the Exposure and Fate Assessment Screening Tool (E-FAST) (Version 2.0), which is available on the Agency’s website.  The model has been independently peer reviewed by the EPA’s Science Advisory Board.
2. EPA will require five environmental fate studies to determine the potential of the antimicrobial to harm the microbial processes in wastewater treatment systems and to determine the potential amount of antimicrobial present in effluent that the plant releases to the environment.
3. Using available product data, EPA will evaluate the potential for the antimicrobial to bioconcentrate.

The results of these three exercises would then be used to conduct a screening-level environmental fate assessment.  Based on this assessment, EPA would be able to determine if a more in-depth risk assessment would be required before the pesticide could be registered.

NACWA Review

Over the past several years, as the issue of emerging and trace contaminants in the environment has garnered increasing attention, one of the focuses of NACWA’s advocacy on the subject has been the need for additional scrutiny of products before they are approved and marketed in the U.S. to fully evaluate their impact on water quality.  This EPA proposal would make significant improvements to the current assessment procedures for down-the-drain pesticide products and NACWA believes it is a step in the right direction.  A wide range of products would be captured by this rule, improving our understanding of their full life-cycle impacts. 

NACWA will participate in a November 6, 2008, workshop on the rule in Arlington, Virginia to learn more about EPA’s proposal and how it may impact clean water agencies. 

Again, NACWA is currently reviewing the proposed rule and is soliciting feedback and comments on the proposal from its members.  Comments on the proposal are due to EPA by January 6, 2009, so NACWA is asking members with input to provide it to Chris Hornback at chornback@nacwa.org This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by Friday, December 12, 2008, to assist in developing the Association’s comments on the rule.

 

 

 

---

[1] Antimicrobial soaps containing triclosan and other personal care products would not be covered by this rule.  These types of pesticide uses are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.