Source: NCDENR Press Release, March 16

RALEIGH – The Division of Water Quality will hold a public hearing in Greenville on March 21 to gather comments on a new federally required general permit to regulate the state’s largest applicators of pesticides.

The hearing, which begins at 6 p.m., will be held at the Pitt County Cooperative Extension Center Auditorium, 403 Government Center. Written comments on the proposed National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program general permit will be accepted until March 24 and can be presented at the hearing or sent to: Division of Water Quality, attn: Jeff Poupart, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1617.

The proposed general NPDES program permit is for application of biological or chemical pesticide products that are either directly applied to or have the potential to reach state waterways. The permit covers those who control the financing and the decision to perform pesticide application as well as those who perform the application activity. Activities addressed by the permit include control of: mosquito and other flying insect pests, aquatic weeds and algae, aquatic animal pests, forest canopy pests and intrusive vegetation.

A certificate of coverage is required if annual treatment applications exceed the following treatment area thresholds:

Applicators that do not exceed annual treatment area thresholds will be deemed permitted.

At this time, per a federal appeals court deadline imposed upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the permit is scheduled to become effective on April 9, 2011. However, the EPA has asked the court for an extension of the permit requirement until Oct. 31 to address issues of permit administration. In addition, the federal House Agriculture Committee approved a bill to amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act and the Clean Water Act to eliminate the requirement of a NPDES permit for pesticides approved for use under FIFRA. The N.C. Division of Water Quality is closely following this issue and will amend permit requirements as the law dictates. Should the April 9 permit deadline be carried forward, the permit will be issued to all holders of a valid Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Pesticide Applicators license in lieu of a certificate of coverage until Dec. 31, 2011.

The proposed general permit is available on the DWQ website home page under the Hot Topics heading. For more information, contact Jeff Poupart at: jeff.poupart@ncdenr.gov or by calling: (919) 807-6309.