The Environmental Protection Agency will convene a formal Scientific Advisory Panel on risks posed by atrazine to aquatic plants. The agency had said there would be an “external peer review” of its proposed risk management strategy for the herbicide but had not said what form that would take. EPA has proposed growers reduce the amount of the herbicide applied and employ a mix of conservation practices, depending on the level of atrazine already in their watersheds.
 
The Triazine Network, a coalition of ag groups, said it had been told “several times” by EPA that the agency would convene an SAP on the proposed “aquatic plant community” level of 3.4 parts per billion of atrazine (known as the CE-LOC), once the comment period on the latest changes has ended in September.
 
IFCA will keep our membership abreast of the issue moving forward.