Kaua'i genetic research firm fined
By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer
Broken environmental rules have led to fines and two separate government investigations at Pioneer Hi-Bred's genetically modified plant research site on Kaua'i.
The Environmental Protection Agency has fined Pioneer Hi-Bred $72,000 for failing to immediately report a false-alarm test that showed genetically modified corn pollen had possibly contaminated other plants at Pioneer's Waimea Research Station.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun an investigation into an unrelated case of genetic contamination at a nearby plot of Pioneer research corn.
It was the second time in a year that the EPA has fined Pioneer for breaking rules in Hawai'i. The latest violation drew sharp criticism from EPA officials, who monitor Pioneer's efforts in Hawai'i to develop insecticide-producing corn through genetic engineering.
Pioneer, one of several multinational agricultural companies using Hawai'i as an isolated test bed for genetic crop research, apologized for the violation and promised to ensure it wouldn't happen again.
Pioneer also acknowledged the unrelated contamination at the plot being investigated by the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. But Pioneer officials said that contamination was minor, has been cleaned up and was no threat to the food supply.
The latest EPA fine came after several months of tests at the Waimea research site, which has become one of the centers of Pioneer's effort to develop corn that rids itself of pests by producing insecticidal chemicals.
Pioneer agreed to the tests after EPA agents discovered last year that the company had broken environmental rules in planting its experimental corn. Pioneer paid a $9,900 fine then and agreed to quarantine other nearby corn plots, test them for contamination by the genetically modified pollen, and destroy any contaminated plants.
An initial round of tests came up tentatively positive for contamination, an indication that genetically modified pollen had possibly leaked from the test plot into other corn plots.
Pioneer was supposed to tell the EPA about the positive test — but it didn't. Instead, Pioneer officials admitted yesterday, the company conducted two rounds of more specific tests, which revealed the initial, tentative results were "false positives," and then presented the final results to the EPA.
EPA officials said Pioneer's initial failure to report the results was a serious oversight.
"When we negotiate an agreement with a company, we expect full compliance," said Wayne Nastri, the EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific and Southwest, in a statement yesterday. "Pioneer's failure to report its test data and provide other information as required was a direct violation of our agreement."
The result was that EPA lost control of the test process — not a precedent the agency wants to set, EPA enforcement officer Ann Miller said.
"After a positive test (for contamination), the EPA gets to determine what the next steps are, and that didn't happen," Miller said. "We needed to make those decisions rather than have the company make those decisions."
Pioneer spokeswoman Courtney Chabot Dryer said the company turned over the test results as soon as it knew it had broken the rules. The company paid the $72,000 fine in March, she said.
"The point is we did it and the result was unacceptable," Chabot Dryer said. "The deadlines were clear, and we failed to meet them."
The unrelated contamination under investigation by USDA was discovered when Pioneer was conducting the EPA tests. Pioneer discovered that 12 of about 4,000 corn plants in a separate plot contained rogue genetic material. The company determined it came from pollen that escaped a batch of corn grown earlier at a third nearby plot.
Chabot Dryer said those plots are used for early-stage research corn, and subsequent testing would have weeded out the contaminated material long before it spread farther.
But she acknowledged that the contamination means Pioneer still has room to improve its prevention measures. It covers corn tassels with plastic bags, pollinates research crops by hand and destroys experimental plants after research ends. "This process has helped us gather scientific data to improve our system," Chabot Dryer said. "We are constantly reviewing our processes to make improvements."
After learning of the unrelated contaminations, the EPA forwarded the test material to USDA, which has jurisdiction over most of Pioneer's research plots. The EPA only regulates genetically modified research crops if they include insecticides or herbicides.
"We don't want to see any contamination, and the fact that there was is a definite concern," the EPA's Miller said.
