The Center for Biological Diversity, which filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last month, said in a news release that the move is intended to pressure the EPA over the pesticides chlorpyrifos and diazinon.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed its lawsuit on Feb. 24 against the service "to push it to take action to stop endangered species from being harmed by the pesticides chlorpyrifos and diazinon," the center said in a news release the same day.
The service is required to protect endangered species from being harmed by the pesticides under the Endangered Species Act, according to the news release.
"The Fish and Wildlife Service has no excuse for taking more than five years to limit harms from two pesticides that it knows injure and kill hundreds of endangered species," Center for Biological Diversity Senior Attorney Stephanie Parent said in the release. "It shouldn’t require lawsuits to force the agency charged with protecting our most endangered wildlife from harmful pesticides to actually do that important work. But they've left us with no other choice."
Endangered species specifically mentioned in the lawsuit include the California condor, Southwestern willow flycatcher, black-footed ferret and Chiricahua leopard frog in Arizona.
The Center for Biological Diversity is headquartered in Tucson, Ariz., and maintains offices in eight U.S. states, in addition to Washington and Mexico.
The center's lawsuit has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge John C. Hinderaker, on the bench in the District of Arizona.
In its news release, the center cited a January 2017 EPA report that found Chlorpyrifos are likely to harm 97% of protected endangered species. The same report also found that 78% of protected endangered species are likely to be harmed by diazinon.
In August, the EPA announced it would halt use of chlorpyrifos on all food "to better protect human health, particularly that of children and farmworkers." In its "final rule" at the time, the EPA revoked all "tolerances" for chlorpyrifos, ending previous amounts that the EPA said could be allowed on food, and issued a notice of intent to cancel registered food uses of chlorpyrifos.
In its lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity said the service failed to meet its own self- and court-imposed December 2017 deadlines.
"Five years have passed since EPA initiated these consultations on chlorpyrifos and diazinon," the 21-page lawsuit said. "Since then, FWS has not completed any biological opinion or recommended any measures necessary to ensure that registrations of uses of pesticide products containing chlorpyrifos or diazinon do not jeopardize the continued existence of endangered or threatened species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat of these species."
The lawsuit asks, among other things, that use of chlorpyrifos and diazinon be barred on lands within the service's jurisdiction "until they have completed the chlorpyrifos and diazinon consultations."
