Ruling on Herbicide Finalized

On Jan. 16, the MAA Research Task Force (Task Force) signed an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which permits the continued use of MSMA. The agreement ends use of the the herbicide ingredient in residential turf at the end of 2010. The announcement comes about two years after the second comment period ended regarding the propsosal on the regulation of MSMA. (Click here for background information.)

MSMA sale for the use on golf courses, sod farms and highway rights of way will continue until Dec. 31, 2012, with use of stocks permitted until Dec. 31, 2013.  During 2012 (before the discontinuation of these uses), EPA, through one of the Agency’s external peer-review groups, will evaluate the scientific information available on any risk posed by inorganic arsenic.  The use of MSMA will continue beyond 2013 should the review result in a conclusion that there is no health concern at the doses of exposure resulting from the relevant uses.  EPA will also take into account additional information available on the benefits conferred by MSMA.  This is particularly important due to the increased problems of weed resistance to products other than MSMA, particularly in the Southeastern United States.

The Task Force is hopeful that the reviews described above will enable EPA to extend these use patterns beyond 2013 and to declare them eligible for re-registration.

The directions for use of MSMA for these applications will be revised as follows:

Golf courses:

One broadcast application will be allowed on newly constructed courses.

Application on existing courses will be limited to spot treatment (100 squre feet per spot), not to exceed 25 percent of the total course in one year.

Sod farms:

Two broadcast applications will be allowed per crop.  A 25-foot buffer strip will be required for those fields bordering permanent water bodies.

Highway rights-of-way:

Two broadcast applications will be allowed per year. A 100-foot buffer strip will be required adjacent to permanent water bodies.

Other MSMA Uses

Certain uses of MSMA will not be permitted after Dec. 31, 2010 (sale of MSMA for these uses will stop on Dec. 31, 2009).  Those uses are:

• Residential turf
• Forestry
• Non-bearing fruit and nuts
• Citrus, bearing and non-bearing
• Drainage ditch banks, railroad, pipeline, and utility rights of way, fence rows, storage yards and similar non-crop areas
• Bluegrass, fescue and ryegrass grown for seed (this use may be continued till 2013).

MSMA uses in Florida, other than for cotton, will cease and registrants will delete the uses of the related products DSMA, CAMA and DMA (cacodylic acid and its sodium salt), by end of 2010.

The Long Term Outlook for Uses of MSMA Other than Cotton:

The Task Force strongly believes that there is growing scientific evidence that low doses of inorganic arsenic do not pose a concern to human health or to the environment.  If an EPA science review, to convene in 2012, concurs with this position, then inorganic arsenic resulting from uses of MSMA will not pose a concern, and the Task Force will petition for restoration of some or all of MSMA uses.