An Environmental Article from All-Creatures.org

For a second time, US court bans dicamba weed killers, finds EPA violated law

From Jonathan Hettinger, TheNewLede.org
February 2024

For years, Bayer and BASF have blamed other factors than their weed killers, including illegal use of older chemicals, for the damage. Each year, the EPA and states have put in new restrictions, but those aren’t working, the judge wrote.

Dealing a blow to three of the world’s biggest agrochemical companies, a US court this week banned three weed killers widely used in American agriculture, finding that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law in allowing them to be on the market.

The ruling is specific to three dicamba-based weed killers manufactured by Bayer, BASF and Syngenta, which have been blamed for millions of acres of crop damage and harm to endangered species and natural areas across the Midwest and South.

This is the second time a federal court has banned these weed killers since they were introduced for the 2017 growing season. In 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its own ban, but months later the Trump administration re-approved the weed killing products, just one week before the presidential election at a press conference in the swing state of Georgia.

But a federal judge in Arizona ruled late Monday that the EPA made a crucial error in re-approving dicamba, finding the agency did not post it for public notice and comment as required by law. US District Judge David Bury wrote in a 47-page ruling that it is a “very serious” violation and that if EPA did do a full analysis, it likely would not have made the same decision.

Bury wrote that the EPA did not allow many people who are deeply impacted by the weed killer – including specialty farmers, conservation groups and more – to comment.

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Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.

Including:

• Scientific concerns
• Prone to drift

 

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