PEORIA, IL — An attorney representing water districts throughout Illinois has filed a class action lawsuit in the Third Judicial Circuit of Illinois against the manufacturers of the herbicide atrazine, the Journal Star reported August 22.
According to the Web site for plaintiffs’ attorney Stephen Tillery, the lawsuit contends atrazine in drinking water is unsafe at any level, even at levels well below the US Environmental Protection Agency requirement.
The suit has been filed on behalf of the rural Holiday Shores Sanitary District near Edwardsville and other water districts throughout the Illinois. It names atrazine manufacturer Syngenta Crop Protection Inc., with headquarters in Switzerland, and Growmark Inc., with principal offices in Bloomington, as defendants. The lawsuit asks Syngenta to compensate water districts for the cost they incur in removing atrazine, a cost that could run over $1 billion nationwide on an annual basis, the Star Journal reported.
Atrazine is banned in a number of European countries, including Switzerland, because of the potential for groundwater contamination, but it is widely used in the United States on corn, according to the Star Journal.
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