Lawsuit Attempts to Overturn Dicamba Re-Approval by EPA
December 22, 2020
Environmental and farming interest groups filed a petition for review in the Ninth Circuit on Monday against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s recent re-registration of dicamba based herbicides. The petitioners claimed that the EPA rushed the registration through and did not fulfill its duties to ensure that the herbicides were safe.
Specifically, the petition purports that the EPA violated its duties under the Administrative Procedure Act and the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. It claims that the EPA failed to “support its unconditional registration conclusion” that the herbicides would have “no unreasonable adverse effects on the environment” and refused to allow comments on the decision, hiding it inside a separate registration decision related to state pesticide restrictions. The filing also purports that the EPA violated the Endangered Species Act because it did
New dicamba registration and label effectively address June 2020 Court decision concerns, say Bayer officials. By
12/22/2020 EPA’s October 27 decision covered dicamba formulations that include Bayer’s XtendiMax, BASF’s Engenia, and Syngenta’s Tavium. “Our career staff reviewed significant amounts of new scientific information and carefully considered input from stakeholder groups,” said Andrew Wheeler, EPA administrator, at the time of the decision. He added the EPA determined the registration actions will address the concerns outlined in the June (2020) Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision. However, the four plaintiffs – the Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, Pesticide Action Network North America, and the National Family Farm Coalition – disagree with that assessment.
For Immediate Release, December 21, 2020
Contact:
Nathan Donley; Center for Biological Diversity, (971) 717-6406, ndonley@biologicaldiversity.org
Farmers, Conservation Groups Challenge EPA’s Unlawful Re-approval of Dangerous, Drift-Prone Dicamba Pesticide
Dicamba Drift Has Damaged Soybeans, Orchards, Trees, Gardens On a Scale Never Before Seen in History of U.S. Agriculture
SAN FRANCISCO Four public interest groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s rushed re-approval of products containing the dangerous, drift-prone dicamba pesticide.
Over the past four years the dicamba products sprayed “over the top” of soybean and cotton crops genetically engineered to resist the pesticide have caused drift damage to millions of acres of soybeans as well as orchards, gardens, trees and other plants on a scale unprecedented in the history of U.S. agriculture.