EPA Extends Use of Methyl Bromide Product

Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice in the Federal Register (79 FR 22669 – 22670) amending a pesticide cancellation order from May 20^th, 2011 (76 FR 29238 – 29240) allowing for the use of existing stocks of two methyl bromide products on golf courses. The products were produced by Cardinal Professional Products and Trical, Inc; both of Hollister, CA.

Golf Course Soil Fumigant

The original order allowed for the use of existing stocks through December 31^st, 2013. In January these two manufacturers notified the EPA that they still had stocks of the material and requested an extension of the allowed sale and allowed use dates. Neither of the two letters is currently posted to the docket at www.Regulations.gov (Docket # EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0123) so it is not clear how much of the two products is actually still available for use.

In today’s modification of that order the EPA allows:

• The sale and distribution of existing stocks of the affected products until November 30, 2014;

• The use of existing stocks of the products purchased prior to April 30, 2014 according to the directions on the label for the product until those stocks are exhausted; and

• The use of existing stocks that were purchased after April 30, 2014 only on golf courses according to the directions for that use on the label for the product until those stocks are exhausted.

Methyl Bromide and CFATS

Insert standard diatribe about methyl bromide being removed from list of DHS chemicals of interest (COI) because methyl bromide was ‘being phased out by EPA’.

It is not clear if this order revision would have any practical effect on chemical security rules under the CFATS program. Since we don’t currently know how much of the products the two organizations have on hand we don’t know if they would have enough (10,000 lb minimum if the standard toxic release chemical standard was used) to be required to submit a Top Screen to DHS. Certainly if they are currently covered under the CFATS program because of the possession of other, actually listed COI, this order will not affect their status.

Golf courses that use these two products will almost certainly not have anywhere near 10,000 lbs of this material on hand, so they would not have (if methyl bromide were a listed COI) to be concerned with CFATS reporting requirements.