The EPA failed to ensure that dicamba can be used safely when it issued a five-year approval of the weedkiller, said a lawsuit that asks a federal appeals court in San Francisco to vacate the EPA registration of the herbicide. Foes say dicamba is overly prone to evaporate from where it is sprayed and to drift onto neighboring fields, orchards, gardens and trees.
“We’re in court yet again because for four years, the EPA repeatedly claimed dicamba is safe and for four years, the agency has been dead wrong, resulting in millions of acres of damage,” said Nathan Donley of the Center for Biologicial Diversity. Four groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, filed the lawsuit on Monday.
EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the five-year approval of dicamba for use on GE cotton and soybeans a week before the presidential election. He said new safeguards, which include a requirement to add a pH buffering agent to sprayer tanks, would reduce the risk of damage. In June, the appeals court in San Francisco vacated the EPA registration of dicamba, ruling the agency underestimated or ignored the risks of the weedkiller. The agency already was at work on conditions for use of dicamba in 2021 and later years.
In June, agrochemical giant Bayer announced a $400 million settlement of separate litigation claiming crop damage caused by dicamba from 2015 to 2020.
“Rather than do what the law and science requires, the Trump administration has again unlawfully promoted pesticide corporations’ profits over protecting the interests of farmers or the environment,” said George Kimbrell of the Center for Food Safety. “So they are getting what they deserve this holiday season: Coal in their stockings and a federal lawsuit.”
The lawsuit says EPA did not consult with other agencies on whether dicamba was a threat to endangered species or their habitats and did not provide sufficient evidence of its conclusion that the herbicide would not cause unreasonable harm.
The lawsuit is available here.