The Environmental Protection Agency is considering whether to fine the crop-biotechnology units of DuPont Co. and Dow Chemical Co. for what EPA regulators say was improperly conducting field trials in Hawaii.
David Deegan, an EPA spokesman, said the move is part of the agency's push to ensure that pollen from genetically modified crops doesn't end up in the wrong place, an issue dogging the biotechnology industry. Critics worry that wind-blown pollen from genetically modified crops -- both experimental and commercial -- might carry new traits to weeds or contaminate organically grown relatives.
The federal agency, which regulates plants genetically modified to make their own pesticides, has never punished a company over the way it conducted the field trial of a transgenic plant.
How tough the EPA plans to get is far from clear, however. The Bush administration is pro-biotechnology, and the EPA's proposal to issue civil administrative complaints against the two companies came to light only because letters written by agency officials came into the possession of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington public-interest group lobbying for tighter regulation of genetically modified crops.
The companies, which face fines of $5,500 per violation, are being given a chance to fight the allegations, which come from regulators in the EPA's San Francisco office.
Dow Chemical issued a statement late Tuesday that it is investigating the EPA's allegations against its Mycogen Seeds unit, which has been developing a new line of insect-resistant corn in Hawaii. The state's year-round growing season makes it a popular proving ground for transgenic crops.
A spokesman for DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. unit said employees there believe they followed all EPA rules for conducting field trials in Hawaii. Pioneer is developing a corn plant that makes a chemical fatal to the rootworm, a major pest of Midwest corn farmers.
Biotechnology-industry officials said the EPA's complaints are nitpicky. Among others, the letter by Pamela Cooper, chief of the pesticide section in the EPA's San Francisco office, says Mycogen "failed to utilize walls of Willy-Willy trees" for windbreaks around its research plots. According to a Dow Chemical official, the Mycogen unit used another type of tree.
Ms. Cooper didn't return a telephone call seeking comment.
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