APHIS to Streamline Soil Import Permit Application Process
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is working to streamline the application process for soil import permits, it said in an emailed bulletin. “Beginning later this summer, soil import permit applicants” using Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Form 525 “will no longer have to sign a compliance agreement for the chemical or physical analysis of regulated imported soil or imported soil for decontamination by incineration or landfill disposal,” APHIS said. “Instead, APHIS will incorporate the safeguarding requirements previously contained in these compliance agreements into the soil import permit conditions. This action will eliminate duplicate paperwork and help reduce the time it takes APHIS to issue soil import permits,” it said. APHIS will announce the start date for the new procedures in a future message, it said.
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“Under the streamlined process, applicants will have to submit standard operating procedures describing facility operations through ePermits,” APHIS said. “Applicants will also need to complete an applicant questionnaire in ePermits that covers facility security, equipment, and storage capabilities. Facilities that currently hold a soil import permit and soil compliance agreement will be assigned a unique number. When it’s time to renew, permit holders will be able to select their facility number from a dropdown menu in the ePermits system to initiate the renewal process,” APHIS said. “Facilities that also handle domestic soil from federally quarantined areas will be required to maintain a current domestic soil movement compliance agreement.”