Iowa Property Owner Joins Long Line of Owners with Damaged Trees

By: Duane Craig

The Iowa plaintiff in a lawsuit against E.I.DuPont joins potentially thousands across the country who are making claims against the company for damages resulting from using one of the company’s products to control lawn weeds, according to this article.

In this case, the property owner hired a lawn care firm to take care of his lawn. That firm used DuPont’s Imprelis herbicide to control lawn weeds, but besides killing weeds, the chemical also began killing the plaintiff’s trees. Within two weeks, trees were browning and experiencing leaf curling with one mature Red Maple dying completely.

This property owner joins about 30,000 others across the country who are seeking damages from DuPont because of Imprelis, according to this article. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of trees may be damaged or killed by the herbicide that was touted as being environmentally friendly and having low toxicity to mammals.
Imprelis was first used in the fall of 2010, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s report. That was after DuPont did about 400 efficacy and phytotoxicity field trials and then claimed it did no damage to trees. However, the EPA required restrictions on the product’s labeling because it had evidence the active ingredient, aminocyclopyrachlor, when present in composted materials, posed a risk to plants. The product was widely distributed during the spring of 2011, and tree damage started showing up during the summer months. By Aug. 4, 2011, DuPont had received enough evidence to convince it that Imprelis was also a good tree killer. It withdrew the product from the market. A week later, the EPA issued an order to the company to stop selling Imprelis and recall unused quantities.

According to this report, there was a conflict between the EPA and DuPont over information not being made publicly available. DuPont earlier claimed the study data on the herbicide was confidential, but after pressure from the EPA, it removed the confidential restrictions on the portions of the study data EPA said should be public.

Iowa Community Considers Trading Wells for Community Water

By: Duane Craig


Hills, Iowa residents who are in the path of an expanding underground plume of perchlorate are bracing for the day when they might be told their wells are contaminated with the chemical, according to this article.

Up to now, about 30 homes have been fitted with reverse osmosis water treatment systems to purify their well water, but the plume is on the move and is expected to affect even more homes, according to an official with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

But any new water well contamination will be met with two choices - drill a new well and hope it doesn’t come up contaminated, or vote for the installation of a municipal water system. People in the community have their own wells and only pay the cost of pumping the water. But, if a municipal system is set up, then the estimated monthly bill for 4,000 gallons is expected to be about $50, and everyone will be required to hook up.

The community, though, already has another water problem - nitrates. Voters decided against a municipal water system proposed in 2007 to address the issue. But now, there is $4.63 million available from the Environmental Protection Agency to address the nitrate problem, and $1.9 million of that is a forgivable loan with a low interest rate.

There are residents who were against the water system in 2007, that no longer are, mainly because of the newly available money and the potential for attracting new businesses because of having municipal water.

Haggling Over Toxic Cleanup Leaves Iowa Day Care in the Middle

May 17, 2010 - Connie Richardson runs a child care center in her home, which is surrounded by contaminated soil and toxic chemicals from a front-yard gas station she closed 20 years ago.

She has no idea whether the underground benzene or other dangerous gases made it into the home she shares with her husband, Richard. Four children stay in the child care center five days a week, playing with stuffed animals stored in a street-side room that used to hold B&C Services' grocery items and the cash register.

Tests in 2006 within 10 feet of the house's foundation found high levels of benzene in soil vapors.

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Could Your Home be a Former Meth Lab?

June 2, 2007 - When she bought her west side Sioux City home last year, Kayla Mobley wanted it to be a place where her foster children and those who attend her day care could play safely.

No one told her a methamphetamine lab was found in that house less than two years earlier. By law, no one had to.

"After we moved in, the neighbors were telling my kids that this used to be a drug house, but I didn't know what to think," Mobley said.

She was given proof of the fact when she was approached by a Journal reporter, who found her address at 1311 W. Sixth St. on the Drug Enforcement Agency's National Clandestine Laboratory Register.

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