Ag Headlines for Wednesday, September 9, 2015

WOTUS Injunction Not Nationwide

A federal judge late last week ruled the injunction blocking the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Waters of the U.S.” rule only applies to the states included in the lawsuit. That means implementation can continue in 37 states across the country. Judge Ralph Erickson cited “competing sovereign interests and competing judicial rulings.” Erickson issued an injunction to block the implementation of the rule for 13 states on August 27th. Four other courts have denied preliminary injunctions, two because they found they lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, he noted. The other two courts deferred their decision until a judicial panel decides whether to consolidate all of the legal challenges to the Obama administration rule. North Dakota is joined in the lawsuit by Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming and two New Mexico state agencies.

Study Shows Popular Herbicide Shows No Long-Term Impact on Aquatic Plant Life

A Baylor University Study concludes atrazine does not appear to have long-term, measurable impacts on aquatic plant life. Atrazine, a common herbicide used to control weeds in corn and sorghum crops, had caused “level of concern,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The study’s lead investigator, Ryan King, said this research is the first to address atrazine levels as they would “naturally occur in agricultural areas during rainfall runoff events.” In an artificial stream facility designed to analyze runoff, King said the researchers found that atrazine had only temporary effects on more than a dozen different biological response variables. However, the vast majority of those variables had recovered after the dosing ceased. King went on to say that only two response variables were affected by atrazine at the end of the study following a recovery period, and these effects were slight and unlikely to be ecologically significant.

 California Changes Label for Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide

California will label Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide as a product that is “known to cause cancer.” California environment officials issued a notice of intent to change the label last week, making the state the first to require such a label for Roundup. The label change follows a move by the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifying glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” earlier this year. Glyphosate is the main ingredient in Roundup. Monsanto maintains that the product is safe to use. The listing does not restrict use or sales of the specified substances, and the public is allowed to submit comments regarding the proposal through October 5th. In 2013, Monsanto received approval from the Environmental Protection Agency for glyphosate, claiming the product is health and environment safe.