COMMENTS ON NPDES DRAFT GENERAL PERMIT 

Texas Department of Agriculture 

Pesticide Division 

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) commends EPA on the extensive work and 

thought given to the development of the draft general permit. TDA believes that the draft 

general permit provides a solid point of reference as well as being a good source of 

information for individual states to use in making determinations and developing a 

general permit that will meet the needs of users in the state without being unduly 

burdensome. 

TDA would offer the following comments for consideration that could improve selected 

areas of the draft general permit document: 

1.1.1 Area-Wide Pest Control – 15 contiguous acres is a small area, especially in a state 

with the landmass as large as exists in Texas. The threshold limits should be 

significantly increased, at a minimum, but we would prefer that a state be given 

the flexibility and latitude to determine its own threshold values, as well as the 

criteria to use in setting those values. Most area-wide pest control efforts are 

required to conduct environmental impact statements prior to the implementation 

of the program. We would suggest the deletion of the text “and in an area greater 

than 15 contiguous acres”. 

1.2.2 Operators required to submit a Notice of Intent (NOI) should only be based on 

threshold areas for the four designated pesticide use patterns. Otherwise, it is too 

confusing for the operators to determine whether or not they are required to 

submit a NOI. 

We would prefer that a state be given the flexibility and latitude to determine its 

own threshold values, as well as the criteria to use in setting those values. We 

would recommend deletion of this section in favor of the NOI being threshold 

driven only. 

2.1.1 Determining the lowest effective amount of pesticide product per application to 

control the target pest while minimizing the potential for development of pest 

resistance is difficult for most applicators. This data was accumulated by the 

pesticide registrant and was the source of the product label instructions. We 

suggest changing to “use lowest amount of product listed on the pesticide label 

for the target pest(s)”. 

5.1.3 The actual brand name(s) and EPA Registration number(s) may not be available 

when the NOI is submitted. Many pesticide active ingredients are produced by 

multiple manufacturers, are sold under different brand names, and therefore have 

different EPA registration numbers. Many entities must go through a bid process 

for purchasing and the products purchased may vary each time. It may be best to 
list the active ingredient the entity expects to use. The brand name(s) and EPA 

Registration number(s) should be required in the record keeping after the product 

has been applied. 

6.3.1 The document states that once a permittee is informed of an adverse incident, 

notification of EPA must occur. We would suggest modifying the definition for 

adverse incident to be “means an incident, which you have observed upon 

inspection or of which you have been made aware in which a person or non-target 

organism suffered a toxic adverse effect”. 

 

6.3.2 This section requires that the adverse incident written report should be sent to the 

state lead pesticide agency. The adverse incident written report should require 

that the report be sent to the permitting agency since they will most likely have 

jurisdiction if a violation occurred. The permitting agency can then include other 

agencies if necessary for enforcement. 

 

7.0 Annual reporting – Pests controlled should be deleted. Pesticide applications 

occur in some states until the end of December. February 15 may not allow 

enough time to compile annual reports. March 1 would allow more time to 

prepare reports. 

Although we understand the need for some type of annual reporting requirement, 

we believe that this should be as simple as possible, and where possible require a 

total parameter, such as total amount of each product used and total area of 

discharge. 

8.2 Recordkeeping – We suggest modification of this section to allow the permittee to 

maintain records of pesticide use consistent with their state law or regulations that 

require maintenance of pesticide application records. This would reduce adding 

additional requirements above what they are already doing. 

In Texas, licensed commercial and noncommercial applicators must maintain 

application records of all pesticides applied. Licensed private and certified 

private applicators are required to maintain application records of all restricteduse and state-limited-use pesticides and regulated herbicides applied.