United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Southwestern Region tp-r3-16-26
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- Pesticide risk assessments
- Updating NEPA documents
- NPDES
NEPA Documents for Pesticide UseManagement activities such as pesticide application on NFS lands may not be undertaken unless documentation for a project is in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (FSM 1950). Information on the NEPA process for analyzing invasive plants may be found in the Forest Service’s Invasive Plant Management Decisions and Environmental Analysis, which can be found at http://www.fs.fed.us/rangelands/ftp/docs/Weeds_NEPA.pdf. Pesticide risk assessmentsAll NEPA documents (EAs and EISs) involving pesticides must incorporate relevant information from a risk assessment. The risk assessment is used to evaluate the probability that use of a pesticide might pose harm to humans or other species in the environment. Risk assessments help guide agency decision-making and are also used to disclose potential environmental effects to the public. The Forest Service has prepared human health and ecological risk assessments (HERAs) for pesticide activities on NFS lands (http://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/pesticide/risk.shtml). Risk assessments from non-Forest Service sources may be used for the NEPA process; however, these alternative risk assessments must be comparable in quality and scope to Forest Service risk assessments. The Regional Invasive Species/Pesticide Coordinator should be consulted before using any alternative risk assessment in a NEPA document. Updating NEPA documentsNEPA planning should incorporate sufficient flexibility for timely implementation or substitution of new technologies that fall within the scope of the original decision. A review should be made periodically of existing environmental analysis and decision documents to determine whether a new NEPA document is necessary to allow use of newly available technologies, e.g., biocontrol agents or “new chemistry” herbicides. In Region 3, some forests have relatively outdated EAs or EISs for invasive plant management that do not include biocontrol agents or new herbicides such as aminopyralid or aminocyclopyrachlor. These new types of herbicides can be more cost effective and potentially have better human safety profiles with fewer environmental impacts. Older environmental analyses for herbicide use may also need to be updated to allow use of biocontrol agents and to revise control methods or strategies that have proven inadequate. Such strategy revisions may include replacement of relatively small scale herbicide treatment with larger scale treatments. To allow use of additional herbicides that were not originally included in an existing NEPA document, a supplemental information report (SIR) may be used. The SIR allows review of new information or changed conditions for a national forest and can determine whether new application technologies have the same or similar impacts compared to analyses and effects evaluated in earlier NEPA documents. If addition of the new herbicides is consistent with the existing environmental analysis, the SIR may be used in lieu of supplementing or revising the existing NEPA document and issuing a new decision. Forest Service risk assessments provided at http://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/pesticide/risk.shtml should be referenced in the SIR. The website currently has 21 herbicide risk assessments (including aminopyralid and aminocyclopyrachlor). The Regional Invasive Species/Pesticide Coordinator should be consulted before using any alternative risk assessments in a NEPA document other than those on the Forest Service website. The SIR review should be coordinated with NEPA personnel. Once the SIR process is completed, a memo should be added to the correspondence database together with the SIR as an attachment. The memo and SIR should also be added as part of any official file that contains the original NEPA document. NPDESStarting after October 31, 2011, point-source discharges of pesticides into “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) are required to be authorized through an EPA or State-issued Pesticide General Permit (PGP) in compliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations of the Clean Water Act. For the purpose of determining WOTUS, forests in Region 3 must consider all waterbodies, wetlands, canals, irrigation ditches, and bottomland areas (riparian areas, floodplains, etc.) on NFS lands as WOTUS unless these areas can be positively excluded by the Forest or Regional Hydrologist. This includes waterbodies or wetlands that are ephemeral or intermittent (seasonally dry). The PGP for a particular State provides NPDES coverage for operators (Applicators and/or Decision-makers) who have (1) met conditions of eligibility defined in the permit and (2) submitted a Notice of Intent (NOI) and other documents in accordance with permit requirements. For purposes of PGP compliance, the Forest Service is considered to be a large entity Decision-maker. In addition to the NOI, an up-to-date pesticide discharge management plan (PDMP) is required for permit coverage of pesticide applications unless otherwise exempted by a permitting agency. The intent of the PDMP is to identify and evaluate control measures that will comply with pollutant restrictions and minimize discharges. The Forest Pesticide Coordinator has the lead responsibility for preparing required NPDES documents for the forest. Each NOI or self-certification form filed by a forest with a permitting agency for pesticide treatment on NFS lands involving WOTUS must be authorized by the Regional Forester who serves as the certifying official for the Forest Service. In addition to submitting NOIs and PDMPs to the Regional Forester for approval and eventual submittal to NPDES permitting agencies, forests with pesticide discharges into WOTUS are required to prepare an annual report each calendar year for the duration of PGP coverage, regardless of whether discharges from the application of pesticides have been made. EPA’s official reporting form found at http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/pgp_appg.pdf may be used by forests in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma as the annual report’s template. The annual report for Arizona forests must be completed by February 14 and kept with the PDMP. For forests in New Mexico and Oklahoma, an annual report on pesticide application activities performed by Forest Service personnel under each NOI is due to EPA no later than February 15. The forest must submit the annual report electronically through EPA’s notice processing system (eNOI) or by mailing the annual template form directly to EPA. Further information may be found in the NPDES Guidance for Region 3 (http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/r3/forest-grasslandhealth/invasivespecies). 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