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Atrazine Guidelines

Producers must take special care in their application methods in order to preserve ground and surface water safety.

The KyCGA has been working with Syngenta and other agencies to prevent and eliminate these unacceptable levels of Atrazine by implementing individualized grower education and consulting programs.

We encourage you, as responsible stewards of the environment, to remember the Best Management Practices when using Atrazine:

Know Your Field. Conduct a farm site evaluation to determine which fields are highly erodible and at risk for potential groundwater contamination. Also identify wells, sinkholes, and points where field surface water enters intermittent or perennial streams, rivers, lakes or reservoirs.

Read the Atrazine product label. Note special restrictions and precautions regarding environmental hazards. The label is the law.

Calibrate equipment properly. Proper calibration is the key to applying the proper rates of Atrazine. Inaccurate tank volume and pressure gauges or worn nozzles also cause improper application. Inspect your equipment before each use. At a minimum, sprayers should be calibrated at the start of the season and every time you change materials.

Fill tanks properly. Where possible, fill sprayer in the field and use a nurse tank as a water source. Note the proper setback from sinkholes, streams, wells or other water sources. Use an air break or anti-back siphoning device between the sprayer and water source to prevent back siphoning.

• Do not mix, load or apply Atrazine product within 50 feet of drinking water wells, livestock wells, irrigation wells, abandoned wells or sinkholes.

• Do not mix or load an Atrazine product within 50 feet of intermittent streams, perennial streams, rivers, lakes or reservoirs.

• Do not apply an Atrazine product within 200 feet of lakes or reservoirs.

• Do not apply an Atrazine product within a 66-foot arc measured from points where surface water runoff enters intermittent streams, perennial streams or rivers.

Clean sprayer in the field. Flushing or cleaning of equipment should be done at the application site or field away from wells or other water sources.

Minimize runoff.

• Use appropriate crop management practices.

• Use grass filter strips when needed.

• Use no-till if possible.

• Use chisel plowing instead of moldboard plowing.

Store and dispose of Atrazine properly. Purchase only amounts needed. Any unused product should be stored in the original container in a secured, dry, ventilated area. Location of pesticide storage facilities should be a minimum of 100 feet from wells, springs, cisterns, open channel sinkholes and perennial streams.

Dispose Atrazine containers properly. Atrazine container disposal can be accomplished in a safe, environmentally responsible manner.

• Triple rinse all plastic jugs according to label instructions. Call your local county extension agent of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture for the nearest Rinse and Return Program in your area.

• Use water soluble packets whenever available. The outside portion can be put in the trash.

• Bulk and mini-bulk containers can be returned to dealers.

• Plastic bags cannot be burned. All empty Atrazine plastic bags can be put into the trash and sent to an approved landfill.

• By federal law, Restricted Use Herbicides such as Atrazine require accurate records of the application.

• An applicator must make a written record within 30 days after application.

• Records to keep include product name and EPA registration number, total amount applied, location, crop or site of application, size of treated area, name and certification number of applicator or supervisor, and date of application.

Ask for evaluation assistance. Work with dealers or applicators and evaluate your fields before the planting season. Call you Cooperative Extension Service or the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service for additional evaluation assistance.

For a complete BMP guide to Atrazine, contact the Kentucky Department of Agriculture at (502) 564-7274.

Helpful Links: www.agsense.com

News:

(July 7, 2010)
Loss of Atrazine Would Wipe Out 21,000 to 48,000 Jobs Dependant on Agriculture

University of Chicago economist says even more losses would come when sorghum, sugar cane and other crops are considered

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 7, 2010) – Banning the agricultural herbicide atrazine would cost between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs from corn production losses alone, according to University of Chicago economist Don L. Coursey, Ph.D.

Dr. Coursey announced his findings at a briefing sponsored by the Triazine Network today at the National Press Club in Washington.

Coursey estimates atrazine’s annual production value to corn alone to be between $2.3 billion and $5 billion.  Atrazine’s additional value to sorghum, sugar cane and other uses increases these totals.

“The economic data on atrazine are very clear.  As a first-order estimate, banning atrazine will erase between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs related to or dependant on corn production, with additional job losses coming from both sugar cane and sorghum production losses,” Coursey said. 

“The range is wide because we have never before banned a product on which so many depend and for which suitable replacements have a wide variety of prices and application regimes.”

“If all of that job loss were concentrated in the agricultural sector, its unemployment would grow by as much as 2.6 percent. Replacement costs for corn farmers could reach as high as $58 per acre,” Coursey said.

Atrazine has been a mainstay of corn, sorghum and sugar cane production for 50 years.  The second most-used herbicide in the U.S., it controls a broad range of yield-robbing weeds, is safe for the crop and supports a variety of farming systems, including soil-saving conservation-till agriculture.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-registered atrazine in 2006 based on the evidence of nearly 6,000 studies and more than 80,000 public comments.  It began an additional, unscheduled review of atrazine in late 2009. 

“Atrazine is essential to U.S. agriculture.  We appreciate Dr. Coursey’s findings and will distribute them to our members, the EPA and to our elected representatives.  With unemployment still painfully high across the nation, we can’t afford to lose as many as 50,000 jobs and the corn yield that sustains them,” said Jere White, Triazine Network chairman and executive director of the Kansas Corn Growers Association.

EPA cited a media report and claims by a longtime anti-atrazine group when it announced the additional, unscheduled review.  It was the first time in history EPA did not cite sound science to initiate a review process.

Coursey’s statement can be viewed at http://agsense.org/.

Coursey is the Ameritech Professor of Public Policy Studies in the Harris School at the University of Chicago, where he served as dean from 1996 to 1998.