Senate Engrossed

State of Arizona Senate Fiftieth Legislature Second Regular Session 2012

SENATE CONCURRENT MEMORIAL 1009

 

A CONCURRENT MEMORIAL

 

urging the united states environmental protection agency to deregister rotenone.

 

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

To the United States Environmental Protection Agency:

      Your memorialist respectfully represents:

      Whereas, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. §136 et seq. (1996)) provides for the federal regulation of pesticide distribution, sale and use and requires that all pesticides distributed or sold in the United States be registered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); and

Whereas, rotenone was first registered in the United States in 1947 as a general-use pesticide for a variety of agriculture and residential uses and as a piscicide, or fish poison; and

Whereas, rotenone is currently registered as a restricted use pesticide for freshwater piscicidal uses due only to inhalation, acute oral and aquatic toxicity; and

Whereas, rotenone is classified as highly toxic to fish, aquatic-phase amphibians and aquatic invertebrates on an acute exposure basis; and

Whereas, the EPA relied on estimated data, rather than an actual analysis of rotenone-based piscicidal compounds, to determine the toxicity, exposure and risk to freshwater fish and invertebrates, avian and mammalian terrestrial organisms; and

Whereas, studies show that the rotenone compounds used for piscicidal purposes contain inactive ingredients that cause cancer and reproductive harm and contain other active ingredients, such as deguelin, that have been linked to the onset of Parkinson's disease symptoms; and

Whereas, sufficient scientific data is unavailable to evaluate the risk of rotenone exposure to nontarget aquatic plants; and

Whereas, studies show that rotenone is mobile to moderately mobile in soil and sediment; and

Whereas, studies show that rotenone may persist in lakes for up to six months, in streams for at least two weeks and in certain soil types for up to 118 days; and

Whereas, rotenone has been reported to cause dizziness, peripheral neuropathy, numbness, tremors and Parkinson's disease-like symptoms; and

Whereas, FIFRA requires a periodic review of pesticides every fifteen years, and reregistration involves a thorough review of the scientific data underlying a pesticide's registration; and

Whereas, the EPA has found that currently registered piscicidal uses of rotenone are eligible for reregistration as of March 31, 2007; and

Whereas, the EPA's mission is to "ensure that all Americans are protected from significant risks to human health and the environment where they live, learn and work."

Wherefore your memorialist, the Senate of the State of Arizona, the House of Representatives concurring, prays:

1.  That the United States Environmental Protection Agency reconsider its action and deregister rotenone.

2.  That the United States Environmental Protection Agency reevaluate the environmental and health risks associated with the use of rotenone.

3.  That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.