By WES SANDER
Capital Press

A spokeswoman for California's Department of Pesticide Regulation says it could be several more weeks until the state decides whether to register methyl iodide.

The chemical is being considered by state officials to replace methyl bromide, which has been phased out under an international agreement to reduce ozone-depleting substances. DPR had said a decision would be made by February's end.

Agency head Mary-Ann Warmerdam is "looking at everything," said DPR spokeswoman Lea Brooks.

The Environmental Protection Agency registered the pesticide in 2007. Every state except California, Washington and New York has since followed suit. Most states do not conduct their own registration processes.

Growers in other states -- including Florida, which has registered the chemical through its own process -- are watching California because DPR's decision could affect their ability to use the substance.

That's because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it could revise its own registration of the chemical based on information gleaned from California's investigation.

The EPA has said it will take a close look at a report, published in February, by a panel of university researchers who reviewed the science behind DPR's risk assessment of the chemical.

The panel described DPR's science as generally sound, but also added its own opinion, saying the difficulty of controlling methyl iodide in the field makes it too dangerous for workers.

Laboratory scientists have similarly criticized the chemical. But field scientists and growers, along with Arysta LifeScience, the company that markets the chemical as a soil fumigant, say application practices are more than adequate to ensure safety.

Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, has called a hearing of the Senate agriculture committee to review the science panel's report. The hearing had been scheduled for March 16, but that has been postponed and a new date had not been set as of March 10. It is a follow-up to a February hearing that was billed as an examination of alternatives to chemical fumigants.

Florez spent much of that hearing discussing methyl iodide's risks, ground that had been covered in legislative hearings as well as the state's review. Florez said he wants to do away with chemical fumigants.

"The day is coming when we're going to be moving past these particular substances," he said at the hearing. "It has to."

But Robert Dolezal, executive vice president of the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers, told Florez that the growers in his San Joaquin Valley Senate district would "face certain extinction unless you act -- unless you urge DPR to register methyl iodide without further delay."

Arysta released a statement saying it had not been invited to testify at the first hearing.