NAAA Announces EPA’s Change in Aerial Drift Model Use Through Press Release to Agriculture Media

On Monday, September 30, NAAA sent a press release announcing that EPA has accepted NAAA’s recommendations to improve the accuracy of the models used to estimate the amount of drift from aerial applications in numerous pesticide application risk assessments and as part of the agency’s endangered species insecticide strategy. The press release has been picked up by Farm Journal’s The Daily Scoop, Agri-Marketing Update eNewsletter and the CropLife Magazine website.

CropLife Magazine’s website has 192,000 monthly views. The Daily Scoop eNewsletter is read by 20,000+ farmers, ag retailers and crop consultants nationwide and Agri-Marketing Update’s eNewsletter has 10,000 subscribers. The press release has also been distributed to numerous national agricultural groups and pesticide manufacturers and associations to further aide in the registration of pesticides for aerial use.

NAAA has advocated to the EPA for many years to utilize the Tier III model in AgDRIFT and use more realistic assumptions for aerial applications. In a support document for EPA’s recently released insecticide strategy, EPA indicated they had accepted NAAA’s recommendations and used the Tier III AgDRIFT model and most of NAAA’s suggested assumptions when drafting the insecticide strategy. The support document strongly suggests EPA will use the more accurate Tier III model with updated assumptions for all ecological risk assessments going forward. Similar EPA policies related to the reregistration of pesticides have also resulted in the agency moving towards Tier III of AgDRIFT and using wind directional buffers—points advocated by NAAA.

“With EPA’s movement to the Tier III model of AgDRIFT for aerial applications,” said Andrew Moore, chief executive officer of NAAA, “it shows the agency’s commitment to enhance its accuracy and base policy on sound science. It will also aid pesticide manufacturers in their efforts to register products for aerial use and ensure ag aviation’s customers can continue to rely on aircraft to judiciously apply needed pesticides to protect their crops without unnecessary and burdensome regulations.”