Dicamba Plaintiffs Ask for Immediate Cutoff of Weedkiller

The victors in a lawsuit against the weedkiller dicamba asked the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn an EPA decision that would let farmers use the herbicide until July 31. "Emergency relief is required to prevent off-field drift harms that will occur on millions of acres should spraying continue," said the coalition of farm and environmental groups in an emergency petition.

Judges told EPA to submit a response by Tuesday to the petition filed last Thursday. The coalition said EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler should be held in contempt of court for trying to evade an immediate cutoff of dicamba, which is sold by Bayer, BASF, and Corteva.

The appellate court ruled on June 3 that EPA overlooked or ignored evidence of risk from dicamba when it approved use of the chemical, so it revoked federal approval of it. Dicamba is used on millions of acres of GE cotton and soybeans. It has been embraced by growers worried about invasive weeds that were becoming resistant to glyphosate. On June 8, the EPA said growers could apply dicamba through July 31 if they already had the weedkiller on the farm. It said it was a common practice to phase out a chemical when registration ended.

"EPA called this a 'cancellation' order but it was actually a 'continuing uses despite vacatur' order," said the petition, referring to the court decision to vacate approval of dicamba. July 31 is "effectively the rest of the spraying season," it said.

Critics say dicamba too easily evaporates from its target plants and wafts onto neighboring property to damage crops and plants.

Read more of FERN's coverage of the dicamba-drift controversy.