EPA Releases Updated Proposed Surface Water Mitigations for Atrazine to Protect Endangered Species

Last week EPA released a proposal with updated mitigations for atrazine. The proposed mitigations are intended to protect endangered species and other non-target species from surface water runoff of atrazine. The updated mitigation proposal uses the mitigation menu and point system from EPA’s final Herbicide Strategy.

The degree of mitigations required are based on the level of atrazine found within a watershed. The proposed mitigation document reflects the revised level of atrazine in water that is expected to hurt non-target species, which is a 60-day average of 9.7 ug of atrazine per liter of water. If the 60 average is above 45.4 ug of atrazine per liter of water, even more mitigations are required. The proposed mitigations also include a prohibition of atrazine applications during rain or when soils are saturated for all atrazine applications, regardless of watershed. A reduction in the maximum amount of atrazine allowed to be applied annually is also proposed.

None of the proposed mitigations in the updated document for atrazine deal with drift, nor are there any proposed restrictions or prohibitions specific to aerial applications.