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EPA Set to Reapprove Dicamba, an Herbicide Previously Banned by Courts
The Environmental Protection Agency is slated to reapprove an herbicide for genetically modified soybean and cotton crops, even while acknowledging continued concerns from some growers about spillover effects, according to two EPA staffers and a draft statement obtained by The Washington Post. The EPA has approved dicamba twice before, and both times federal courts vacated those approvals, saying there was too much risk for the herbicide to drift and harm neighboring farms and gardens.
Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, whose organization has sued the EPA three times over dicamba, said there is virtually no way to stop dicamba drift. “The fact that we’re here again after two failed attempts to fix this broken pesticide shows that Lee Zeldin and his army of industry lobbyists are utterly incapable of protecting the public,” he said, referring to the agency’s administrator.
In the proposed registration, released in July, the agency said it would address volatility concerns by requiring the inclusion of drift reduction agents, barring aerial applications and applications when the outdoor temperature is above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and insisting on downwind buffers and provisions to address runoff risk.
Trump’s ‘Get-out-of-Jail-Free Card’ for Polluters Faces Its Latest Test in Court
Last spring, the Environmental Protection Agency made a surprise announcement: President Donald Trump would consider giving some polluters exemptions from a handful of Clean Air Act rules.
To get the ball rolling, all it would take was an email from a company making its case. The EPA set up a special inbox to receive these applications, and it gave companies about three weeks at the end of March to submit their requests for presidential exemption. Hundreds of companies wrote in, including coal plants, iron and steel manufacturers, limestone producers, and chemical refiners.
One industry was particularly eager for exemption: medical device sterilizers. About 40 of the roughly 90 device sterilization plants that operate nationwide, along with their trade association, wrote in, arguing they shouldn’t have to comply with an air quality rule limiting how much toxic material they could emit. That’s because these facilities sterilize medical equipment with ethylene oxide, a potent carcinogen that studies have linked to cancers of the breast and lymph nodes.
Colorado Bill Would Curb Uses of Crop Seeds Coated With Harmful Pesticides
In a move that reflects mounting US opposition to a class of harmful insecticides linked to environmental and human health risks, Colorado lawmakers last week introduced a bill to curb the use of neonicotinoids. The Strengthening Economic and Environmental Decisions (SEED) Act, or SB65, introduced to the state Senate on Jan. 28, would prohibit the use of crop seeds coated with neonicotinoids on farmland unless the buyer obtains a certificate from a government-approved verifier who can certify that the use of the treated seeds is “necessary and appropriate.”
If passed, the SEED Act would take effect Jan. 1, 2029, and would make Colorado the latest state to place restrictions on neonicotinoids, also called neonics. New York and Vermont, as well as the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec, already have similar restrictions in place that only allow the use of treated seeds when they are considered necessary to control pest problems.
Rather than spraying neonics on farm fields as farmers commonly apply other types of pesticides, neonics are commonly coated on seeds before they are planted. Such treated seeds are planted across over 150 million acres of US croplands each year, including corn, soybeans and wheat. Almost all of the tens of millions of corn seeds planted in Colorado each year are treated with neonics.
A Crisis Emerges Across the US as ‘Forever Chemicals’ Quietly Contaminate Drinking Water Wells
Kristen Hanneman made a small decision in 2022 that would upend life for her entire town. State scientists were checking private drinking water wells across Wisconsin for a widely used family of harmful chemicals called PFAS. They mailed an offer to test the well outside her tidy farmhouse surrounded by potato farms cut out of dense forest. Without much thought, she accepted.
Months later, Hanneman found herself on the phone with a state toxicologist who told her to stop drinking the water — now. The well her three kids grew up on had levels thousands of times higher than federal drinking water limits for what are commonly known as forever chemicals. Hanneman’s well was hardly the only one with a problem. And the chemicals were everywhere.
Pristine lakes and superb hunting made Stella a sportsman’s dream. Now officials say the fish and deer should be eaten sparingly or not at all. Many residents here have known their neighbors for decades. If they want to move away from all this, it’s hard to sell their property — who, after all, would want to buy? “Had I just thrown that survey in the garbage,” Hanneman said, “would any of this be where it is today?”
How a SC Riverkeeper’s Detective Work Reveals a Deeper Tale About the Carpet Industry’s PFAS Legacy
The Post and Courier reported:
One day in May 2022, Bill Stangler eased his green canoe into the cool current of the Lower Saluda River, a ribbon of water that springs from the depths of Lake Murray and is so cold that rainbow trout swim here even in Columbia’s sweatbox summers.
Stangler is the Congaree Riverkeeper, a watchdog for South Carolina’s largest Midland rivers, including the Lower Saluda. He carried water sample kits that day and made sure not to wear sunscreen and clothes that might contain PFAS chemicals.
At the time, Stangler only had a vague idea about PFAS. He knew they were called “forever chemicals” because they took decades or longer to naturally break down. He knew they were linked to serious health conditions, even in minuscule amounts. And he knew they were in everything from cosmetics to firefighting foam to nonstick cooking pans. But that was about it.
