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Pesticide News Story: NMFS Issues Final Biological Opinion for Thiobencarb
For Release: July 3, 2012
On July 2, 2012, EPA received the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS') final Biological Opinion relative to the potential effects of the pesticide thiobencarb on federally listed threatened or endangered Pacific salmon and steelhead and their designated critical habitat. Thiobencarb is an herbicide used in growing rice.
A second pesticide, molinate, is also included in this Biological Opinion; however at the request of the registrants all uses were cancelled effective July 30, 2008, and the last use date for molinate was August 31, 2009. For additional information on the cancellation of molinate, visit http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/reregistration/molinate/ or the molinate page in Chemical Search, http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch.
To complete this Biological Opinion, NMFS considered comments and incorporated suggestions from the EPA, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, California Rice Commission, California Department of Water Resources, California Department of Fish and Game, the pesticide industry and other stakeholders. The Biological Opinion provides a nine-month timeframe for implementation. EPA will consider the opinion and take appropriate steps to protect threatened and endangered species from pesticide risks. We will keep the public informed as we proceed.
The Biological Opinion is also available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2008-0654 at Regulations.gov.