10th Annual Pesticide & Ag Plastics Stewardship Conference
Savannah, Georgia
February 21-23, 2010

Program Overview (PDF)

Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have approved sessions at the conference for continuing education credits. More details will be posted soon.

TPSA's mission
To improve stewardship throughout the pesticide life cycle — increasing effectiveness and efficiency, proper labeling, judicious application, proper handling of empty containers, and waste minimization.

Conference objectives
To serve as a forum to facilitate networking and cooperation among parties from around the world who are involved in any aspect of pesticide stewardship. TPSA seeks individuals with pertinent information from private companies, public entities and organizations who are willing to share their stories, findings, and challenges to attend and participate in this year's conference.

Key Note Addresses

Plenary 4-6 p.m. Sunday: New Directions at EPA for Pesticides and Product Stewardship

• Steve Owens, US EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS)


• Respondent Panel of State Pesticide Management Officials and Product Stewardship

Steve Owens is the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) and is responsible for managing the Nation's regulatory and scientific programs on pesticides and industrial chemicals, as well as overseeing many collaborative pollution prevention programs. Steve was nominated by President Obama in April 2009 and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2009.

Prior to becoming the Assistant Administrator for OPPTS, Steve served as Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Appointed by Governor Janet Napolitano in January 2003, Steve was the longest-serving Director in ADEQ history, providing executive leadership and setting overall agency policy and priorities for the department. As ADEQ Director, Steve made protecting children from toxic exposures a top priority, and among many other initiatives, helped launch Arizona’s Children’s Environmental Health Project and established an Office of Children’s Environmental Health at the department.

Before joining ADEQ, Steve was a practicing environmental attorney in Phoenix, Arizona, for 14 years. Steve received a bachelor's degree with honors from Brown University and a law degree from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was Editor in Chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review. From 1982-1984 Steve served as Counsel to the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. During 1985-1988, he was Chief Counsel and later State Director for then-U.S. Senator Al Gore.

Throughout his career before joining EPA, Steve served on numerous environmental panels, including EPA's Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, the Phoenix Environmental Quality Commission, the Clean & Diversified Energy Advisory Committee of the Western Governors Association, and the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation, which reviews environmental matters arising under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Steve also served as President of the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS).

Steve and his wife Karen have two teenage sons, John and Ben.

Plenary 8-9:30 a.m. Monday: Green Chemistry in Pesticide Development and Degradation

• Terry Collins, Director, Institute for Green Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University


• Pesticide Industry Green Chemistry Initiatives

Terry Collins is the Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University where he directs the Institute for Green Science. He is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He taught the first university course in green chemistry at Carnegie Mellon starting in 1992 and he writes and lectures widely on how chemists can promote sustainability. Professor Collins’ research is focused on greening the historically dirty area of oxidation chemistry by designing nontoxic catalysts for activating the natural oxidants, hydrogen peroxide and oxygen. His widely patented TAML® activators promise to allow peroxide to substitute more effectively for chlorine- and metal-based oxidation processes and to enable much more effective processes for destroying in water recalcitrant pollutants and hardy pathogens.

Conference Sessions

• Pesticide Spray Drift: 7-session workshop on improving application efficiency, minimizing off-target drift, improving label language, decontaminating application equipment
• Golf Course Pesticide Stewardship and IPM: 1/2-day workshop at The Club at Savannah Harbor with an early afternoon tour of the facility
• Obsolete Pesticides & Containers—Management and Disposal: new options for minibulks, EPA’s container containment regs, new technologies for destroying obsolete pesticides & residues, obsolete pesticide collection programs around the U.S., Ag Container Recycling Council (ACRC) operations on the East Coast
• Agricultural Plastics Management: 2 days of sessions on implementing collection programs, industry-led product stewardship, emerging markets for recycling, new technologies converting plastics to oil
• Emerging Regulatory Issues at EPA: NPDES/water quality stewardship, seed treatments
• Product Stewardship, cradle-to-cradle
• Communicating stewardship

2010 Annual Stewardship Conference flyer (opens in PDF format)

For more information, contact info@tpsalliance.org.

Corporate Sponsors