EPA stop-sell orders on tainted herbicide

Several companies have been ordered to stop selling and distributing herbicide because of a batch the EPA believes is responsible for damaging eight-thousand acres of soybeans in northeast Kansas. Samples indicated the herbicide – Warthog 2 EC – was tainted with another herbicide, Dicamba, which is used to combat broadleaf weeds and can be harmful to legumes, including soybeans.

According to an EPA news release, EPA Region Seven issued the stop sale-use-or-removal-orders to HPI Products of St. Joseph, Missouri ; Pony Express Warehouse in St. Joseph, which received the product from HPI; and to the pesticide’s registrant, J. Oliver Products of Hernando, Mississippi.

During the week of July 12th, the Kansas Department of Agriculture responded to “multiple complaints” from farmers near Beattie, Kansas who said their soybean crops had been damaged after an application of Warthog 2 EC that was purchased from Frontier Chemical, a dealership in Beattie.

On July 20th, the Missouri Department of Agriculture launched an investigation of HPI Products in Missouri which showed stocks of Warthog 2 EC tainted with the other herbicide, Dicamba.

Kansas and Mississippi Agriculture Departments have placed state stop-sale-distribution orders on Frontier Chemical and J. Oliver products.

Further, the EPA says it has “encouraged J. Oliver Products to consider issuing a broad recall of any quantities of the product that may have already been distributed.”