EPA rejects bid to ban lead in fishing tackle

“Sportsmen and wildlife won a big battle.”

Greenwire reports:

U.S. EPA today denied an effort by environmentalists to ban the lead in fishing tackle, but the green groups said the action gives them grounds for a “fresh start” in legal action.

At issue is the second half of a petition filed to EPA in August 2010 seeking to ban lead from hunting ammunition and fishing gear by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Loon Lake Loon Association.

The agency split the petition into two parts — ammunition and fishing gear. EPA denied the ammunition section in August 2010, saying it lacked the authority to regulate the bullets under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Today in the Federal Register, EPA also denied the fishing tackle portion.

Opponents of the petition, including the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, applauded EPA’s denial, saying that “science has prevailed.”

“Sportsmen and wildlife won a big battle,” Jeff Crane, president of the foundation, said in a statement. “Though we doubt the Center for Biological Diversity will stop this ideological attack on fishing, the EPA has decided against an unscientific restriction of lead fishing tackle”…