EPA Calls For Liverwort Comments
To help the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establish an emergency status for liverwort, the agency is allowing growers to share their comments on why it should grant emergency use of Gentry, a product from Chemtura that contains the active ingredient quinoclamine. The EPA’s deadline for comments is Feb. 22, 2007.
Paul Pilon, Perennial Solutions Consulting, Jenison, Mich., has been working with the state of Michigan to obtain approval for the Section 18 Emergency Use Exemption application with the EPA. If approved, growers in Michigan and other states that are approved will be allowed to use quinoclamine on an emergency basis. Several other states are also applying for Section 18 Emergency Use. Pilon feels it is important for all growers comment on this topic, regardless of their locations.
Quinoclamine has been found effective at controlling liverwort and safe to apply to actively growing crops. Pilon has trialed this product and found the results effective. The product has been used for many years overseas to control liverwort.
When commenting on the Section 18 applications, Pilon suggests including information such as the percent crop infested, any related economic data, information on other control products or methods that do not work well, and information about the difficulty and expense of hand weeding.
Comment submissions should be identified with the docket number EPA-HQ-OPP-2007-0028 and can be submitted three ways:
- Submit online at www.regulations.gov and follow the instructions for submitting comments.
- Submit by mail to: Office of Pesticide Programs Regulatory Public Docket (7502P), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001
- Submit by delivery (e.g., FedEx) to: OPP Regulatory Public Docket (7502P), Environmental Protection Agency, Room S-4400, 1 Potomac Yard (South Building), 2777 S. Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202.
Growers with questions about this issue can contact Pilon at paul@perennial-solutions.com.
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