Senator
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

RE: Do NOT allow weakening of pesticide safeguards for endangered species and farmworkers

Dear Senator ,

I am very angry that the administration plans to weaken protections for endangered species and farmworkers by attempting to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to shut fish and wildlife experts out of the process of determining whether certain pesticides may place imperiled fish and wildlife at risk.

The administration should withdraw its proposal that would allow the EPA to stop consulting scientists at NOAA Fisheries and U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine what protections threatened and endangered wildlife need from toxic pesticides. The EPA’s interagency consultation process provides crucial checks and balances on government actions.

The protections brought by this process to protect wildlife also aid farmworkers who work in, and live near, the very areas where certain pesticides threaten wildlife. Both wildlife and farmworkers must be protected from highly toxic pesticides.

The EPA's past actions have shown the agency cannot be trusted to decide for itself whether toxic chemicals will harm workers and imperiled species. Indeed, the EPA has ignored its own science showing that pesticides harm threatened and endangered fish and wildlife, including salmon, bald eagles, and sea turtles.

Pesticides kill millions of fish and other species each year and pose dangers to human health. Salmon in the Pacific Northwest, piping plovers in Florida, and San Joaquin kit foxes and golden eagles in California are just a few of the species that have suffered due to pesticide applications in recent years. Greater protections for these and other species are desperately needed, and the Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries must use their authority and responsibility to ensure protections are put in place.

The proposed rule change will not only hurt threatened and endangered species, but may also hurt the health of farm workers and consumers. Last year, the same rat poison that killed several San Joaquin kit foxes and golden eagles in California was responsible for most of the over 48,000 reported poisonings of children under six.

I support strong protections for farmworkers and endangered species. Please contact Secretary Norton and demand that she withdraw this dangerous proposal.

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