Environmental Group Sues EPA for Dicamba Records

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a federal lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the National Agricultural Law Center.  The suit claims the EPA failed to release records the group requested under the Freedom of Information Act about its decision to allow over-the-top use of the herbicide dicamba on dicamba-resistant soybeans and cotton during the 2026 and 2027 growing seasons.

Dicamba was approved for over-the-top application on dicamba-resistant crops in 2016.  Since then, federal courts have twice vacated EPA approvals for those uses, most recently in 2024.  Despite those rulings, EPA announced in February that it would once again permit over-the-top dicamba applications for the 2026 and 2027 growing seasons.

“The EPA is allowing Bayer to choose its preferred measures to limit dicamba’s damage as if it was ordering up a late-night dinner à la carte from Chili’s,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “But guess who doesn’t even get a seat at the table? The many hundreds of thousands of Americans who will be left to watch their crops, gardens, and trees wither up and die from toxic dicamba gas wafting over their property lines.”

Before that decision, the Center for Biological Diversity submitted multiple FOIA requests seeking documents related to dicamba and EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. The lawsuit claims EPA improperly withheld records and asks the court to compel the agency to release the requested documents.

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