Pesticide Action Network North America v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

MEMORANDUM

Pesticide Action Network North Amer-ica, United Farm Workers, and Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (“Petitioners”) petition for review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) partial denial of their administrative petition, “Pesticides in the Air—Kids at Risk: Petition to the EPA to Protect Children from Pesticide Drift.” We have jurisdiction under 7 U.S.C. § 136n(b). The EPA’s order “shall be sustained if it is supported by substantial evidence when considered on the record as a whole.” Id.

Substantial evidence supports the EPA’s decision to deny Petitioners’ request that the EPA “immediately adopt interim prohibitions on the use of toxic drift-prone pesticides such as organophosphates and n-methyl carbamates near homes, schools, parks, and daycare centers or wherever children congregate.” Viewed as a whole, the record adequately supports the EPA’s conclusion that the imposition of uniform buffer zones is not the most “scientifically appropriate” method for mitigating the risk of exposure to pesticide drift.

The record generally suggests that the risk of exposure to pesticide drift depends on a number of factors, including pesticide toxicity, the…