"US environmental regulators are planning to change allowable levels of a weedkiller linked with reproductive health problems to a concentration critics say discounts years of documented health and environmental risks — potentially marking a new battlefront within the Trump administration.

The proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which was put forth in late 2024 under the Biden administration, would allow concentrations of the herbicide atrazine up to 9.7 parts per billion (ppb) in streams and lakes before any mitigation efforts were required.

That is nearly three times higher than the level of 3.4 ppb proposed by the EPA in 2016 and reiterated by the agency as proper in 2022. But it is lower than a level pushed for under the prior Trump administration. It is also lower than the longtime benchmark of 10 ppb that was in place from 2011-2019, and lower than atrazine maker Syngenta says is necessary.

The agency’s move has been met with outrage by environmental health advocates who say industry influence is overriding solid science, and years of fighting to reduce atrazine contamination of waterways is in jeopardy."

Douglas Main reports for The New Lede January 25, 2025. [2]