EPA REVERSES, PERMITS CONTROVERSIAL PESTICIDE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 1, 1993                   TAG: 9301010024
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: HOLIDAY   
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
EPA REVERSES, PERMITS CONTROVERSIAL PESTICIDE
The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency has reversed a decision by the agency's office of pesticide programs and permitted California grape growers to use an unregistered pesticide to promote uniform ripening of next spring's crop.
The reversal by EPA Administrator William Reilly followed appeals of the earlier decision by California's Department of Environmental Protection, the Republican administration of California Gov. Pete Wilson and the Desert Grape Growers' League.
Word of Reilly's action produced an angry response Thursday from environmentalists.
"The administrator's action to circumvent the safety standards of the federal pesticide law in this instance characterizes the politicized decision making that has plagued the EPA during the Reagan-Bush years," said Jay Feldman, executive director of the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides.
Reilly could not be reached for comment Thursday. But Linda Fisher, the agency's assistant administrator for pesticides and toxic substances, said he had concluded that grape growers faced an economic emergency requiring use of the pesticide, hydrogen cyanamide.
Environmentalists object to the use of the pesticide largely because information about it is scarce.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB