A federal judge in Arizona revoked the US EPA’s approval of three dicamba-based weedkillers and found the agency unlawfully let farmers use them on cotton and soybean crops, according to Bloomberg Law.
The agency failed to fully account for the environmental and economic costs of dicamba’s propensity to drift to areas that weren’t targeted for weed control, Judge David C. Bury of the US District Court for the District of Arizona said in a Feb. 6 order banning the herbicides. It also failed to consider the social costs that farming communities faced from conflicts that ensued with neighboring communities over the damage from the drift, the judge said.
The EPA didn’t ask nearby areas if they were okay with letting the farmers register and spray the weedkillers, violating federal rules requiring the agency to seek public comment before issuing new insecticide, fungicide, or rodenticide approvals, according to the judge. The EPA wouldn’t have made the same decision had it done a full analysis and listened to stakeholders, he said.
The error is “very serious” and “upsets the delicate balance created by Congress between agency determinations and judicial review,” Bury said.
The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups sued the EPA in 2020 to block XtendiMax, Engenia, and Tavium, three herbicides used to control broad-leaf weeds in crops, from re-registering with the EPA. The Arizona-based environmental activism organization claimed the weedkillers have caused immense environmental damage to crops, endangered species, critical habitats, and plants that weren’t supposed to be destroyed.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety represented themselves, as well as the National Farm Family Coalition and Pesticide Action Network North America.
The federal agency first approved XtendiMax, Enginia, and Taviu in 2017 to be sprayed on cotton and soybean crops that were genetically engineered by biotechnology giant Bayer AG to be resistant to the pesticides.
“I hope the court’s emphatic rejection of the EPA’s reckless approval of dicamba will spur the agency to finally stop ignoring the far-reaching harm caused by this dangerous pesticide,” Nathan Donley, Environmental Health Science Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) issued a statement saying it disagrees with the decision. “It removes a determination that should be made by a science-based regulatory agency to a federal court, and the timing of the decision will be extremely disruptive to ag retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and farmers who made plans to use these products in 2024,” said ARA Executive Director Daren Coppock.
“Farmers have already made their decisions about what varieties of cotton and soybean seed they want to plant in 2024, and retailers are already stocking not only the seed but also the herbicides these growers will need for their systems,” Coppock added. “A grower who chooses dicamba-tolerant seed is also choosing to use a dicamba product in their weed control program; otherwise, they would not buy dicamba-tolerant seed. This court decision, issued after those plans have been made and while retailers are procuring the products necessary to fulfill them, comes at the worst possible time in the season.”
Coppock encouraged the registrants to continue the defense of science-based pesticide regulation in the federal courts by appealing the decision and requesting a stay of the decision during the appeal. ARA also sent a letter to the EPA expressing its disagreement with the ruling and suggesting steps that the agency can take to help avoid unnecessary chaos and economic harm to ag retailers, distributors, and the farmers they serve.
The Far West Agribusiness Association noted that three of its members – Bayer (Xtendimax), Syngenta (Tavium), and BASF (Engenia) – manufacture the products, and said agriculture groups around the country strongly object to the ruling. It said BASF has estimated that more than 40 million acres of dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton acres will be affected.