PT19 Unique Demands of Endangered Species Evaluations
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Tuesday
(PT277) Endangered Species Risk Assessments for Agricultural Products.
Hall, A1, 1 Bayer CropScience
ABSTRACT- In performing an ecological risk assessment for agricultural products and endangered species, the scope and scale of the analysis will depend upon the pesticide product being used, its inherent toxicological properties and use pattern, as well as the potential endangered species that could be impacted. Recently the USEPA has described a screening level risk assessment for endangered species and pesticide products. One final step in this process is the performance of a species level assessment, which is a detailed analysis on a certain taxonomic group of endangered species for which a no effect or not likely to affect decision could not be made in the earlier steps of the risk assessment. The starting point of a species level risk assessment is the basic ecological risk assessment and the determination of the potential co-occurrence (at the county level) of the species with a crop on which the pesticide may be applied. The subsequent steps in the process may include a combination of a number of factors that mitigate the concern about a potential effect to an endangered species and/or that may refine where potential concern may require even more extensive analysis. These factors may include an analysis of the proximity of the species to the crop of interest at a sub-county level, a detailed investigation of the species biology and habitat, an assessment on the amount of pesticide product used in a particular area, and/or a refined exposure assessment for a geographic region. Given that a pesticide product may be used in a large geographic area, an endangered species assessment can be quite detailed and complex. An approach for performing these analyses, with specific examples, will be given to demonstrate how a refined endangered species assessment can be performed.
Key words: pesticides, ecological risk assessment, endangered species