US: Cane farmers fear threats by federal herbicide review
Published: 03/22/2010, 12:30:51 PM
Some local sugarcane farmers are adding their voices to objections to a new federal review of a widely used weed-killing chemical that environmentalists contend may be threatening drinking-water supplies, according to Louisiana's Daily Comet newspaper.
Environmental organizations broadly support the EPA's decision to learn more about the effects of the herbicide Atrazine on humans and have criticized what they see as government efforts to soft-sell the chemical's potential dangers.
Atrazine, manufactured in St. Gabriel, is used as a weed killer in products like St. Augustine Weed & Feed, sold on the shelves of local hardware and garden-supply stores. Its primary commercial use is killing weeds that grow in fields of sugar cane, corn and other crops.
Some biological studies, including two reported recently in scientific journals, purport to link Atrazine to development of frogs containing the sex organs of both genders, a claim Syngenta, the global company that manufactures the chemical, says is not scientifically sound.
Some south Louisiana water bodies, including Bayou Lafourche, are included in a list of places where Atrazine has been detected above limits considered safe by the EPA for brief periods of time in certain years.
A study by The Courier and the Daily Comet of Atrazine numbers in Lafourche Parish show elevated levels of the substance in drinking water on specific dates.
But officials in Lafourche and Terrebonne, as well as specialists with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture, say their monitoring of Atrazine presence, nonetheless, shows no dangers to local water supplies.
The local and state officials acknowledge that the federal limit is not based on the kind of daily spikes that were seen in Lafourche but on annual averages. The spikes are rare, they said, and are easily wiped out in the process of compiling the numbers.
The Lafourche Parish Water District's manager, Dirk Barrios, did not return calls Wednesday and Friday. His office did, however, provide requested data.
In Terrebonne, the numbers appear to be non-problematic.
"Once water has been treated in the delivery system, there has been no detection of the presence of Atrazine," said Barry Blackwell, manager of Terrebonne's Consolidated Water District No. 1. "While the raw-water-supply source at times has indicated the presence of Atrazine, the water in the distribution system has not. We use charcoal filtering plus the customary chemicals in the process of treating the water. It is removed.
Mike Robichaux, a St. Mary Parish farmer who works 2,800 acres of sugar cane there, is among those concerned about the potential that what is seen as an effective agricultural tool could be lost.
"One of our biggest concerns is that it is a good chemical, it is inexpensive, effective and some of the alternative chemicals are really worse, they can have a lot more impact on our neighbors than Atrazine could," Robichaux said.
The amounts of Atrazine used by farmers in Louisiana aretiny compared to big agricultural operations in the Midwest, he said. But some local farmers are concerned that efforts to control herbicide runoff from those regions could result in hard times for Louisiana's sugar-cane growers.
Robichaux said he has confidence in the monitoring done by the state's own Department of Agriculture. He is satisfied with the EPA's current declaration that the substance is safe, noting that he and other farmers don't want to use a chemical that is harmful to their fields or their neighbors.
"We are handling the stuff; I sure don't want to get cancer from it," Robichaux said, explaining that the review process causes him concern because he fears it could be politically motivated. "A review was just done on Atrazine. We have a change in administration, and all of a sudden they want to review it again. ... I may be all wet in that regard, but it seems that way to me."