Debating How Much Weed Killer Is Safe in Your Water Glass: “For decades, farmers, lawn care workers and professional green thumbs have relied on the popular weed killer atrazine to protect their crops, golf courses and manicured lawns. But atrazine often washes into water supplies and has become among the most common contaminants in American reservoirs and other sources of drinking water. Now, new research suggests that atrazine may be dangerous at lower concentrations than previously thought. Recent studies suggest that, even at concentrations meeting current federal standards, the chemical may be associated with birth defects, low birth weights and menstrual problems. Laboratory experiments suggest that when animals are exposed to brief doses of atrazine before birth, they may become more vulnerable to cancer later. An investigation by The New York Times has found that in some towns, atrazine concentrations in drinking water have spiked, sometimes for longer than a month. But the reports produced by local water systems for residents often fail to reflect those higher concentrations.”

• Poisoning the Well – How the EPA is Ignoring Atrazine Contamination in Surface and Drinking Water in the Central United States, August 2009. See also Appendix: Poisoning the Well: How the EPA Is Ignoring Atrazine Contamination in Surface
  and Drinking Water in the Central United States

• Graphic: Atrazine Levels Across the Nation
• Holiday Shores v. Syngenta – Class-Action Complaint: The class-action lawsuit brought by a water district in Illinois against Syngenta, a Swiss firm that manufactures atrazine.
• Graphic: Summertime Spikes in Atrazine Levels