By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The North American Millers Assoc. (NAMA) has received a critical use exemption (CUE) to continue using methyl bromide; it was approved at the recent United Nations (UN) Environmental Program in Egypt.

What this means is that NAMA members will be able to continue using methyl bromide, at least until the end of 2011. According to NAMA’s website, Vice President James Bair has submitted another CUE petition for use of methyl bromide through 2012. The USDA, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State Department will review the petition and then hand it off to the UN.
“In essence, the chemistry is banned,” Bair said. “Since 2005 every interest or industry that uses it or wants to use it has to file an application for a critical use exemption. Growers are not a part of this exemption.”

According to Bair, milling companies use methyl bromide to sanitize their facilities; however, under an international agreement, methyl bromide is being phased out because of concerns it is depleting the Earth’s ozone layer. Bair said methyl bromide is still being used by flower growers in California, fruit and vegetable growers in Florida and tomato growers in some places, all via critical use exemptions.
According to a Michigan State University report dated Jan. 5, 2004, on alternatives to methyl bromide, it is still being used in Michigan.
Methyl bromide is used “primarily as a pre-plant soil fumigant in the production of herbaceous perennial ornamentals, woody seedlings and specific vegetable crops … The Quarantine Pre-shipment exemption clause in the Montreal Protocol does not appear to be the solution to the Michigan herbaceous perennial ornamental and woody seedling industries problem.

“(Methyl bromide) is also used in Michigan as a post-harvest fumigant for agricultural products and for treatment of pest-infested structures and equipment.”

According to Amy Frankmann, executive director of the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Assoc., nursery and landscape facilities continue to rely on methyl bromide.

“Our seedling growers use it, as well as our perennial growers,” she said. “We file a critical use exemption every year for each of these.”

She said there is another way to get permission to use methyl bromide, called a quarantine pre-shipment (QPS). A QPS is much less cumbersome a process, Frankmann said.

“The EPA would like it if we stopped using it,” she added. “We don’t know how much longer we can use it, but there isn’t anything as effective. Other chemistries that come close to it aren’t cost effective and don’t do as good a job.”

Methyl bromide is also used to control pests on golf course turf in Michigan and other states. According to a recent article in MSU’s Green Section Record, a publication devoted to turf management on golf courses, “for some time now it has been known that the industry standard for soil fumigation of golf course putting greens would become unavailable.

“Methyl bromide was the preferred choice because of its broad-spectrum control of weeds, insects, nematodes and diseases, but it will likely be phased out under the Montreal Protocol because it was identified as an ozone-depleting substance. A potential ban on its use by the (EPA) now appears to be fast approaching and we have yet to find a suitable alternative … or have we?”

The author, agronomist Ty McLellan, suggests some possible alternatives for treating turf grass, but added there are problems with all of them. He concluded: “If you are currently considering a putting green renovation at your facility, it may well be worth doing so sooner rather than later.

“And, while no project should ever be rushed, moving up the date to ensure that methyl bromide can be used may be worthwhile. The long-term success of your greens may even depend on it.”