Arkansas House, Senate OK bills to stiffen fines for herbicide abuse

The House and Senate passed similar bills Monday that would allow the State Plant Board to levy greater civil penalties in egregious cases of herbicide misapplication.

The House voted 68-12 to pass House Bill 1692 by Rep. David Hillman, R-Almyra. The Senate voted 32-1 to approve Senate Bill 501 by Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning. Both bills would allow the plant board to assess a civil penalty greater than $1,000 but not more than $25,000, but only if the board finds the violation is egregious.

A violation would be egregious only if "significant off-target crop damage occurred as a result of the application of dicamba or auxin-containing herbicide."

Hillman told representatives that the existing $1,000 maximum penalty wasn't enough to make a difference.

"This summer when we were having all these dicamba problems, we had a farmer who used it illegally and without responsibility," Hillman said. The man had four farms, so the penalty was $4,000.

"He just arrogantly looked at them and said: 'Just tell me who to make this out to so I can go back home.' Obviously the $1,000 wasn't working," Hillman said.

Arkansas farmers have been planting new soybeans that are resistant to the weedkiller dicamba as they battle weeds that have become resistant to other herbicides such as glyphosate -- better known as Monsanto's Roundup. While the seeds are federally approved, new versions of the dicamba herbicide that are less likely to drift into other fields are not.

[EMAIL UPDATES: Get free breaking news alerts, daily newsletters with top headlines delivered to your inbox]

The situation has left farmers with a dilemma. Those with the new dicamba-resistant soybeans can spray their fields -- endangering their neighbors' crops that aren't dicamba resistant -- or allow the weeds to take over and lose tens of thousands of dollars.

Many have chosen to spray old dicamba formulations.

In October, a Mississippi County soybean and cotton farmer was fatally shot after a dispute over the spraying of the herbicide on his fields northwest of Leachville.

Mike Wallace of Monette was one of several Arkansas farmers who filed complaints with the state Department of Agriculture's Plant Board last year alleging that their crops were damaged when neighboring farmers illegally sprayed dicamba.

"All of you know the story about dicamba and how the farmer was killed up there in northeast Arkansas," Hillman said. "There's a lot of hurt feelings, a lot of angst over it. And so I brought this bill today to increase the penalties for egregious actions by people who improperly use farm chemicals."

Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Business on 03/14/2017

Upcoming Events