Last week the EPA released an update to their Endangered Species Act Vulnerable Species Pilot Project (VSPP). The initial proposal for the VSPP was the agency’s response to longstanding lawsuits from environmental activists.  It was released in June of 2023 and was focused on protecting 27 endangered species and their critical habitat that are most at risk from pesticides. After receiving more than 10,000 comments, EPA released last week’s update to apprise the public on what direction EPA intends to take with the VSPP as they move forward.

 

The update confirms that one of NAA’s concerns with the VSPP will be re-evaluated. The VSPP, like other proposed ESA activities, will use Pesticide Use Limitation Areas (PULA) to assign geographical locations where endangered species are located and thus additional pesticide application mitigations are needed. Many of the PULAs in the VSPP were based only on the known range of the species, which does not necessarily mean the species is actually located in every area within a range-based PULA. This would result in many areas requiring pesticide application mitigations even if the species might not actually be present. Based on NAAA’s and other comments, EPA will work to improve the accuracy of the PULAs to better represent where species are located, thus reducing the likelihood of mitigations being required when no endangered species are nearby.

 

One item of concern NAAA found in the VSPP update was that another commenter had requested exemptions to the VSPP for chemigation applications. NAAA is preparing data in response to that request and will follow the issue closely to ensure all application methods are treated the same. The update mentions no additional specifics about the aerial drift mitigations found in the VSPP. 

 

The next VSPP update is expected in the fall of 2024, and NAAA will be ready to respond accordingly to ensure aerial applications are not banned or unfairly restricted by the VSPP or any other proposed ESA related activities.