Atrazine
What is Atrazine?
Atrazine is a widely-used agricultral herbicide for control of broadleaf and grassy weeds, used predominantly for weed control in corn and soybean crops. Atrazine is one of the most commonly used herbicides in the United States, with approximately 75 million pounds applied per year.
Its widespread agricultural use allows atrazine to invade the environment repeatedly. When it is applied, some atrazine is absorbed by plants, but some runs off into surface water such as lakes, streams, and rivers. A small amount even migrates into groundwater where it may stay for a long time, because atrazine breaks down very slowly. Once it reaches water, it can contaminate wells that supply water used for drinking and bathing.
Why is Atrazine a Problem?
Across the United States, 1,200 public drinking water systems are currently contaminated with atrazine, and that number is expected to grow as the product's use continues unchecked.
Only a tiny amount of atrazine in a water supply can cause a problem, and it’s expensive and difficult to clean up.
Removal of atrazine from water requires expensive filtration, usually through granular activated charcoal (GAC) systems. Many public water providers are not equipped with GAC filtration, and many cannot afford to install these systems on affected drinking water wells.
Atrazine is not only expensive to remove from water supplies; it may be associated with human health risks. Some studies have linked it with reproductive system defects in animals. And atrazine exposure may endanger human health as well.
The History of Atrazine Litigation
Scott Summy of Baron & Budd, P.C. is co-lead counsel in the first case of its kind in the United States, brought by a public water supplier in Illinois who filed suit in state court against the six major chemical manufacturers that produce atrazine. The manufacturers first tried to remove the case from state court to federal court. The manufacturers then asked the court to dismiss the case altogether, arguing that the District did not have a valid claim against them.
In an opinion released in July 2008, the court refused the chemical companies’ request and will allow the water provider’s case to proceed. The judge stated that the water provider alleged sufficient facts to show that
the manufacturers’ actions knew that atrazine wold intrude into the water provider’s property;
the manufacturers’ “intentional and/or negligent actions caused a continuous, substantial and unreasonable invasion of the use and enjoyment of [the water provider’s] property”;
the water provider’s injury “was caused by the reasonably probable and foreseeable consequence of” the manufacturers’ breach of their duty not to contaminate the environment; and
“the atrazine products were used in the manner in which they were intended and foreseeably certain to be used, but that the products were unreasonably dangerous when they were used as intended by Defendants.”
Why Are Atrazine Manufacturers Responsible?
The companies that make and sell atrazine knew that it would contaminate groundwater, surface water such as lakes, rivers, and streams, and, more important, the nation’s drinking water. They chose to sell the product anyway, without consideration for the environment or human health. These companies created the mess, and they should pay to clean it up.
What About the Stores that Sell Atrazine Products?
Under the law of products liability, when a product is defective, everyone in the “chain of distribution” from the manufacturer to the final retailer can be held responsible for that product. That means we could sue every store that sells atrazine or atrazine-containing products.
But it is our position that the owners and operators of these stores did not have the same knowledge about atrazine that the manufacturers did. They didn’t control what the chemical companies put into weed killers and herbicides. They just sold the products that filled their shelves.
We believe it is the manufacturers who are responsible and must be held liable for the damage they have caused. These chemical companies decided to use atrazine in their products even though they knew the risks to the environment. These companies marketed and sold atrazine without so much as a warning about the probability that drinking water would be contaminated. These companies continue to claim that it is “safe” although its use has been banned in many European countries. Worse still, they are still selling atrazine, even after it has appeared in the drinking water of dozens of communities across the United States.
