WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency, hoping to help stem the rapid spread of West Nile virus, said Thursday it will let some people spray pesticides on water to kill mosquitoes without having to first get permits under the Clean Water Act.

“We do have the view that there are instances in fact when a Clean Water Act permit is not required with regard to the direct application of pesticides,” Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA’s deputy administrator for water programs, told the House subcommittee on water resources and environment.

Conflicting court decisions over whether public health officials in charge of eradicating mosquitoes must require the federal permits have created “significant uncertainty for communities,” according to Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., the subcommittee chairman.

Local and state officials have shown a preference for spreading Malathion, a highly toxic chemical known to cause illness and genetic mutations, on mosquito-breeding habitats such as storm water retention ponds, drainage ditches, sewers and man-made wetlands.

“Some people are afraid of pesticides, but I don’t think they can justify their actions when people are getting killed from mosquitoes,” Duncan said.

But another lawmaker urged caution. “If the idea here is that people can use anything they want, anywhere they want … then I think we’re going down the wrong path,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.

Grumbles said EPA believes another law – the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rotenticide Act, or FIFRA – adequately covers the situation, partly because it already requires people to obey labels for 21,000 pesticide products now in use.

Mostly spread through mosquito bites, West Nile virus has infected 2,768 people in 34 states and Washington, D.C., so far this year and killed 146 people, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Research entomologist Roger Nasci said, “CDC favors the use of pesticides in the broad context” to protect against virus-carrying mosquitoes and other insect-borne diseases, but added that simply removing mosquito habitats is an alternative.

Mosquito larvae are targeted with chemical and biological substances that inhibit growth or form a thin film on the surface of the water, causing larvae and pupae to drown. Adult mosquitoes, more difficult to control, are attacked with chemical pesticides.