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NMC-CREES still waiting for consent to use fungicides
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Posted on Apr 18 2005
The Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Service said it will not purchase the chemicals needed to fight the bud rot disease threatening Saipan’s betel nut tree population until they get official approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.
NMC-CREES director Anthony Benavente said the application for the permit to use fungicides Kocide 45 LF and Fosphite has yet to be forwarded to the nation’s capital.
Earlier reports alluded to EPA approving the purchase and use of the said chemicals but the Division of Environmental Quality director John I. Castro clarified this has not been approved yet.
He said he had just signed the application last week and NMC-CREES has not submitted it to the EPA.
“It was not clearly communicated,” said Benavente. He said as far as the permitting process for the chemicals is concerned, every permit has to go to DEQ. He said he would stick to EPA regulations so they would not get into trouble.
Benavente confirmed Castro’s statements. He said what they were trying to convey was, once the director signs the application for special local need of the chemicals, they would be able to purchase the chemicals on the approved dates, which are April 15, 2005 until April 14, 2010. He said EPA would have a 90-day period to receive and review the application.
Benavente also clarified that he hasn’t talk with EPA and that they hadn’t given him any approval to begin purchasing the required fungicides. He said there was only a discussion with his counterpart from the Department of Agriculture in Hawaii, who also filed for a similar application to EPA.
“We haven’t sent the application yet because we are waiting for the EPA company number. I already applied for it; we’re just waiting for the number now,” he said.
He said he could not confirm as to when he would forward the application to EPA until he gets the required company number from Washington D.C.
