Atrazine and Water Quality: An Evaluation of Alternative Policy Options

Atrazine is one of the most effective and inexpensive herbicides used in corn and sorghum production. Atrazine is also one of the most frequently detected chemicals in water systems. This paper uses the CEEPES model to evaluate the benefit-risk tradeoffs associated with five policies to restrict atrazine use. Banning atrazine completely would cost $240 million, with no improvement in water quality. Banning all triazines would improve water quality, but it would cost nearly $740 million. Restricting atrazine use to only post emergent applications had similar effects as a complete ban. The most effective policies appear to be atrazine restrictions based on federal health standards of 3 ppb or 100 ppb—water quality was greatly improved at a cost of between $160–$230 million. These results must be conditional, however, since monitoring and enforcement costs are not included explicitly in CEEPES.