EPA fines 2 biotech firms
By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer
Two agricultural companies will pay fines to the federal government to settle charges that they failed to maintain safeguards around research plots of genetically modified corn on Moloka'i and Kaua'i.
Dow AgroSciences and Pioneer Hi-Bred each will pay less than $10,000 to the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA said yesterday, announcing resolution of two complaints it filed earlier this year. Pioneer must also test nearby corn crops to make sure genetically modified pollen didn't contaminate the surrounding area, the EPA said.
Officials for Dow, which must pay $8,800, admitted the company had erred and promised to improve procedures at its Moloka'i research site.
Pioneer, which must pay $9,900, did not admit fault. Company representatives said they will deal more carefully with the EPA when seeking future permits for genetic research at its Kaua'i agricultural station.
Activist groups applauded the EPA's decision, saying that despite the relatively small fine the agency showed it is watching the biotechnology industry's efforts to develop improved food products through genetic modification.
The complaints stemmed from Dow and Pioneer's handling of corn that is genetically modified to produce a chemical insecticide that kills rootworms.
The so-called "bt corn" is commonly distributed to American farmers by Monsanto, another huge agricultural company. Dow and Pioneer have been working on Hawai'i and elsewhere to perfect their own strains, which were created by mixing genetic material from bacteria with corn DNA.
Both companies insist they take extreme precautions to prevent the experimental corn from contaminating commercial crops or local wildlife with genetically modified pollen — a concern frequently raised by community activists, organic farmers and environmentalists as agricultural biotechnology research has boomed on Hawai'i in recent years.
But the EPA said Dow and Pioneer Hi-Bred both violated their environmental use permits, which must be granted before experimental insecticidal corn can be grown.
Lack of plant barriers
The agency said Dow failed to plant a barrier of wiliwili trees around its plot on Moloka'i, and also failed to surround its test corn with rows of hybrid corn. The trees and hybrid corn would help catch stray pollen, and would be burned along with the genetically modified corn at the experiment's conclusion.
Dow said its Moloka'i research team did not install the plant barriers because the corn plot was downwind from all other crops on the island, and was more than 4,000 feet from other experimental plots — more than six times the distance required by the EPA. But company officials yesterday agreed that Dow still "deviated" from the EPA permit requirements.
"We're convinced that what we did, provided for improved protection of the environment," said Pete Siggelko, vice president of plant genetics and biotechnology for the Indianapolis-based company. "But it wasn't consistent with what we said we were going to do. We are disappointed with our performance in this instance. That's a significant administrative oversight, and we're taking steps to ensure that it does not happen again."
On Kaua'i, the EPA said Pioneer planted its insecticidal corn plot in the wrong location — within its Waimea research center, instead of on "leased land" specified by the permit — and also put it too close to other corn plots.
Despite agreeing to pay the fine and spend at least six more weeks testing surrounding crops for signs of genetic contamination, Pioneer officials still say the company did nothing wrong. They said their EPA permit was "ambiguous."
"Their allegation is very technical, and has to do with a difference in interpretation of the language of the permit," said Richard McCormack, manager of the company's O'ahu commercial seed-corn operation, which is run separately from the Kaua'i center. "We have a very high degree of confidence that we complied with the letter and spirit of the regulation. Now, however, we understand where the EPA is coming from, and will pay a great deal of attention in to the wording of the permits, and ask more questions of them to better define the terminology."
The EPA demands Pioneer quarantine and destroy any surrounding corn plots that show evidence of genetic contamination by the experimental corn. McCormack said the odds of contamination are very small, because the company puts plastic bags over the pollen tassels of its experimental corn and pollinates each stalk by hand.
Activist groups applaud EPA
Activists expressed regret that the fines levied against Dow and Pioneer were so small, but said the EPA sent a clear message that sloppy research would not be tolerated. The EPA was limited by law to $11,000 fines in each case.
"Unfortunately it's a puny penalty, but the EPA did a good job given the statutes they have to work with," said Gregory Jaffe, head of the biotechnology division of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer activist group that has closely followed the action against Dow and Pioneer.
"I don't think the fine itself does much, but hopefully the combination of press, publicity and scrutiny will be a deterrent in the future."
The research plots in question are only two among thousands planted by Dow, Pioneer and other major international agricultural companies on Hawai'i since the late 1980s. Hawai'i has become one of the world's prime locations for growing small test plots of genetically modified foods. Companies like Hawai'i's climate, which allows for year-round plantings, and its isolation, which reduces the risk of genetic contamination of major food crops.
Reach John Duchemin at jduchemin@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8062.
