VROOM PHOTO BY DAVID HANSON

This decree may end a long legal saga. In August 1999, NRDC sued EPA for not meeting pesticide review deadlines set in the Food Quality Protection Act. The act requires EPA to reassess one-third of the residue limits permitted on foods by August 1999, another third by August 2002, and the final third by August 2006.

On the final day of the Clinton Administration, EPA reached a settlement with NRDC, agreeing to speed up its reviews of the pesticides. But the agricultural chemical industry and others objected that EPA had not allowed sufficient time for public comment. After an April 6 court hearing, Judge William H. Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered EPA to solicit public comments on the decree.

After considering the comments EPA received, Alsup has decided that the "proposed settlement is fair, equitable, reasonable, legal, and in the public interest."

"We are pleased that the court has swept aside the flimsy objections of the pesticide and chemical industry, and that EPA now is committed to carrying out many of its key legal duties," says Erik D. Olson, an NRDC senior attorney.

"It is outrageous that NRDC's attorney described our argument as 'flimsy,' " says Jay J. Vroom, president of the American Crop Protection Association (APCA). "To meet the deadlines enforced by the consent decree, EPA will have to use default assumptions and other imprecise methodologies, which may result in needless loss of valuable and safe crop protection products." APCA will appeal the ruling.

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