Atrazine
Atrazine is a widely promoted weed killer used extensively in the United States despite its propensity to contaminate water wherever it is used. When atrazine products are applied to crops, some of the atrazine runs off and migrates into rivers and lakes used for drinking water. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires water providers to test for it and, if detected, use expensive filtration systems to remove it to a certain level.
The Environmental Litigation Group at Baron & Budd filed suit against the manufacturer of atrazine, Syngenta AG, on behalf of several water providers serving communities in the Midwest — including several subsidiaries of American Water Company, the largest public water provider in the United States. The litigation grew into a national class action that would benefit hundreds of water providers. After several years of work toward trial, the ELG negotiated a $105,000,000 class settlement with Syngenta that was allocated among 1,085 water providers and provided the means for those providers to supply cleaner drinking water to their communities.
Concerns about atrazine’s safety and its propensity to contaminate groundwater led the European Union to ban the sale of atrazine. Despite the ban, Syngenta continued to market atrazine for use in the United States without warning regulators, water providers, or the public of the potential for water contamination — or of the potential health risks of drinking water contaminated with atrazine.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues to monitor the use and environmental effects of atrazine. In 2016, the Agency concluded that atrazine use presents a potential chronic risk to fish, amphibians, mammals, birds, reptiles, and plants in areas of heavy use. And atrazine may affect the function of the human reproductive system.