WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senate Bill 1500, the Sensible Environmental Protection Act of 2015, would eliminate the requirement that farmers and others obtain a special permit in order to use pesticides in some circumstances.

The bill – sponsored by a bipartisan group of senators including Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) – would clarify that federal law does not require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for already-regulated pesticide applications.

S.1500 was introduced June 3 and a business meeting to consider amendments was held on Aug. 5 by the Committee on Environment and Public Works. The legislation was ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.

According to the Center for Effective Gov-ernment (CEG), an environmental group, S.1500 seeks to legislatively reinstate a deregulatory rule established by the EPA under the second Bush administration. CEG said the rule exempts agribusiness operations and others that use pesticides from pollution permit requirements under the Clean Water Act (CWA) if they follow pesticide label instructions, even if excessive amounts of toxic chemicals enter the nation’s water supply.

It stated the Bush administration claimed pesticides aren’t pollutants from a specific source; but in 2009 an appeals court disagreed, throwing out the rule when it decided excessive pesticides that end up in rivers, lakes and other water bodies are pollutants that require permits.

According to the National Corn Growers Assoc., historically, water quality concerns related to pesticide applications were addressed within the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), rather than a CWA permitting program.

In 2009 a federal court ruled pesticide users are required to apply for a NPDES permit under the CWA if the chemical is sprayed over, near or into a body of water. Under FIFRA, all pesticides are reviewed and regulated for use with strict instructions on the EPA product label, NCGA said, and a thorough review and accounting of impacts to water quality and aquatic species is included in every EPA review. NCGA believes requiring a NPDES permit is redundant.

In the Aug. 5 business meeting to con-sider amendments to S. 1500, committee Chair Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) described S.1500 as bipartisan. "Every-thing on the agenda has bipartisan support," he said, referring to several bills, especially S.1500 and S.1324, the Affordable Reliable Electricity Now Act of 2015.

In reference to S.1324, Inhofe said Pre-sident Barack Obama’s new proposed regulations on power plants, announced only days before, would actually increase greenhouse gas emissions by driving power generation overseas to high-polluting countries "where there are no regulations."

"They may be bipartisan, but not on this committee," retorted Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). She said S.1324 would prevent meaningful action from being taken to combat climate change. "Those who deny it and try to stop our progress, as this bill does, are on the wrong side of history."