Fourth Circuit overturns use restrictions on pesticides.

Last week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a unanimous decision vacating a 2008 Biological Opinion by the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) that supported use restrictions on certain pesticides near the habitat of endangered Pacific salmon. In Dow AgroSciences v. National Marine Fisheries Service [PDF], the Fourth Circuit held that the Biological Opinion was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. The Biological Opinion, which concluded that the application of chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion would jeopardize endangered and threatened salmonids, failed to adequately explain certain critical assumptions. The Fourth Circuit directed that the Biological Opinion be remanded to NMFS for further analysis and revision.

This decision may have sweeping effects on other pesticides subject to use restrictions recommended by NMFS Biological Opinions. The overturned Biological Opinion was the first issued as part of a 2008 settlement requiring the EPA to consult with NMFS on 37 pesticides, with eight more Biological Opinions forthcoming. NMFS may have to reevaluate their procedures in developing Biological Opinions, which would only worsen EPA’s backlog of pesticide consultations. This reversal exemplifies the overburdening of the NMFS (and Fish and Wildlife Service) under the Endangered Species Act’s protracted consultation process.