releases: https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/officials-farm-interests-push-back-on-atrazine-study-
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/officials-farm-interests-push-back-on-atrazine-study- | Officials, farm interests push back on atrazine study | 2016-10-11 | 2016 | 2016-10 | Democrat | House | MO | Claire McCaskill | M001170 | www.mccaskill.senate.gov | legacy | Officials, farm interests push back on atrazine study Tuesday, October 11, 2016 By: Ken Newton A herbicide named atrazine has been commonplace on Midwestern farms nearly six decades and a target of environmental groups for a period short of that. Agricultural interests and state officials in Missouri and Kansas have pushed back against a draft ecological risk assessment that could prohibit or limit the use of atrazine and similar products. Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill has been among the lawmakers taking note of the impact such an Environmental Protection Agency restriction could have on her constituents. In a recent letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the Democratic senator urged collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in determining a final assessment. “(The USDA) must have a seat at the table when something as vital to farmers as atrazine is being discussed,” McCaskill wrote to the EPA head. “Additionally, USDA is the agency with the most relevant information about how atrazine is used in real world applications.” The senator also said the EPA must act, in accordance with federal law, to “give appropriate weight to the benefits” of atrazine and appoint an impartial scientific panel to offer a peer-reviewed evaluation. Atrazine, one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States since being approved in 1958, kills broadleaf and grassy weeds. Along with applications on golf courses and residential lawns, it is largely employed on the Midwest’s corn fields. In a five-year average ending in 2015, Missouri farmers harvested more than 3.2 million acres of corn annually. Missouri exported more than $371 million in corn in 2014. Kansas farmers harvested about 4 million acres of corn in 2015. That state’s attorney general, Derek Schmidt, and agriculture secretary, Jackie McClaskey, filed a comment with the EPA last week regarding the draft risk assessment. Restrictions on atrazine, the officials said, would “directly and negatively affect thousands of Kansas farmers by increasing the costs of production, reducing yield and harming profitability while producing no meaningful environmental benefit.” Runoff of atrazine into surface and ground water has been a subject of environmental concern for years. These tainted water supplies have been linked in various studies to human health problems and ecological risks. According to the EPA risk assessment, released for public comment in April, “levels of concern for chronic risk are exceeded by as much as 22, 198 and 62 times for birds, mammals and fish, respectively.” Morris Heitman of Mound City, Missouri, the immediate past president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association, said this summer that implementation of atrazine restrictions would have serious consequences for farmers. “In our area of Northwest Missouri, we estimate the price tag of replacing atrazine with another product would be $35 an acre over current production costs, without the guarantee of effective weed management,” he said. “In today’s market, that is enough to take the ledger from black to red.” The public comment period, which ended last week, drew nearly 61,000 responses. The EPA study is part of a periodic and required re-evaluation process for registered commercial chemicals. No timetable is available for a decision on the renewed registration. Print Email Tweet | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |