The proposed rules would reduce the concentration equivalent level of concern equivalent from 15 parts per billion to 3.4 parts per billion, reduce atrazine usage to a maximum of 2 pounds per acre per year, prohibit aerial spraying, and ban atrazine applications to saturated soils, as well as within 48 hours of forecasted heavy precipitation.

According to a draft ecological assessment on the EPA’s website, the agency has recorded 3,500 new incidents of off-target dicamba incidents in the 2021 growing season alone.

Comments will now be accepted until Oct. 7. They had been slated to close in September, according to EPA documents.

Atrazine contained in nanocapsules and applied to slender amaranth and hairy beggarticks outperformed commercially recommended rates for atrazine, even when heavily diluted, according to researchers in Brazil.