Corn farmers say the Atrazine Preliminary Interim Decision is a positive for farmers who rely on atrazine for weed control.
The Triazine Network, a coalition including the National Corn Growers Association and advocates for science-based regulatory decisions regarding atrazine, welcomed the document published in the Federal Register last week.
The coalition says the decision supports the Environmental Protection Agency’s commitment to using credible scientific research in setting a reasonable aquatic ecosystem Level of Concern for atrazine.
The decision corrects a recommendation made in the 2016 Ecological Risk Assessment to set the Level of Concern at 3.6 parts per billion, an ultra-low level that would have banned the use of atrazine in much of farm country.
The lower level was based on questionable research, according to the coalition, including studies that had been turned down by EPA’s 2012 Science Advisory Panel.
The publication of the atrazine decision in the Federal Register opens a 60-day comment period that ends on March 2, 2020.
