Settlement offers this spring and summer on fines for farmers believed by Plant Board staff members to have violated the state's ban on spraying dicamba in 2018 and 2019 now amount to more than $1.1 million, according to state records.
The $1.1 million total consists only of cases involving at least one possible egregious violation of Arkansas pesticide law, which is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000. Some case files have several violations. That state law sets the maximum $25,000 fines only for the misuse of dicamba and auxin herbicides.
Offers totaling $393,500 were sent to nine farmers from July 8-17, according to records received from the Plant Board, a division of the state Department of Agriculture, after a request under the state's Freedom of Information Act by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Offers totaling $169,500 were sent to eight farmers from late May to early June, according to the records.
The Plant Board sent out $592,000 in settlement offers to 18 farmers between April 17 and May 15, the Democrat-Gazette reported on May 24. The largest offer in that batch was for $175,000, on 14 alleged violations.
The Plant Board has received more than 1,500 complaints of dicamba damage since 2017, far more than complaints of any other herbicide.
As pigweed, marestail and other weeds developed resistance to glyphosate -- commonly known as Roundup -- and other herbicides, Monsanto began genetically modifying cotton and soybeans to be tolerant of dicamba. It also developed a new dicamba formulation designed to be less prone to off-target movement than older formulations that have been on the market for decades.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency approved new dicamba formulations for in-crop use on varieties of dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybeans, but other varieties of those crops, fruits, vegetables and ornamental trees and shrubs are susceptible to the herbicide.
The onslaught of complaints led the Plant Board to set cutoff dates on dicamba's use -- May 25 in 2019 and 2020, and April 15 in 2018. The in-crop use of dicamba in 2017 was halted that July by emergency order, with the number of complaints climbing to more than 1,000 that year.
Nearly 400 pesticide complaints have been received so far this year, with about a third of those naming dicamba as the suspected herbicide. Crop research stations in Keiser, Marianna and Rohwer, all operated by the University of Arkansas System's Agriculture Division, again have reported damage.
As in previous years, soybeans are the row crop most often reported as damaged. About 100 complaints of damage to ornamental trees and shrubs, fruit trees and backyard gardens have been filed so far this year.
The Plant Board staff has the authority to make settlement offers, which generally are for about half of the maximum fines allowed under the board's penalty matrix.
Each offer, even if accepted by the farmer within the 30 days set by law to respond, still must be approved by the pesticide committee and the 16 Plant Board members with voting privileges.
Farmers who decline the offers can request an informal hearing with staff members to discuss their cases, or request formal hearings with the full board, where they can be represented by an attorney. The state attorney general's office sends a hearing officer to oversee the formal hearings.
The offers of July 8-17 include $12,500 proposed settlements on each of 32 violations considered by staff members as possibly egregious. The largest single offers were for $75,000, sent to two farmers.
Timothy "Dino" Pirani of Wilson in Mississippi County, was sent an offer of $75,000 on July 17 to settle claims that he sprayed dicamba on six fields after last year's May 25 cutoff date.
Pirani's case file indicates that he refused to sign a notice of inspection when Agriculture Department inspectors arrived at his farm last year to investigate whether Pirani had sprayed dicamba on a number of occasions and damaged neighbors' crops.
The inspectors said dicamba symptomology was present in dying pigweed in Pirani's fields of dicamba-tolerant soybeans and in neighbors' crops not tolerant of the herbicide.
Plant Board staff members also sent a settlement offer of $75,000 to Stephen Wray of Marked Tree, on six egregious violations: spraying dicamba on three fields during last year's dicamba ban and three counts of failing to keep records as required by state and federal pesticide law.
The investigation of Wray also was prompted by complaints of dicamba damage on neighbors' fields.
Five farmers were sent settlement offers of $37,500 each for alleged violations in 2019: Ronnie McGhee of Blytheville; Bobby Kirk of Etowah; Josh D. Bartlett of Marvell; Mark Dill of Neosho Rapids, Kan., who farms near Lake Village, and Chris Woodyard of Marianna.
Two settlement offers of $15,500 each were made to Gene McAuley III of West Memphis in separate case files alleging he sprayed dicamba past the state's cutoff date in 2018.
Hershell Schwantz of Lexa, in Phillips County, was offered a settlement of $25,000, for two allegations of egregious violations. That case file indicated Schwantz refused to sign the state's notice of inspection.
Among the $169,500 in settlement offers sent to eight farmers in June, the largest was for $50,000 to Rollen Smith of Tyronza, on four possible egregious violations: spraying dicamba during the 2019 ban, spraying in a manner that resulted in dicamba drift onto a neighbor's oak trees and pecan orchard, failure to keep spray records, and lacking the required private applicator's license.
The other farmers and amount of proposed settlements are $26,000 to Chris Oakes of Tyronza; $25,000 in two case files to Jeff Hillman of Lake Village; $15,500 each to Dennis Brock of Marianna and Oscar Richardson of Helena-West Helena; and $12,500 each to Kyle Carr of Osceola, Jamey Price of White Hall, and Randy Reynolds of Wilson.
The 18 farmers who received the $592,000 in offers were identified in the Democrat-Gazette's May 24 article.
The EPA is expected to announce this year whether the in-crop dicamba formulations now on the market can be used next year -- a decision complicated by a ruling this spring by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel of the court said the EPA failed on several counts to adequately address potential problems with the herbicide, including its ability to move off target, in 2018 when it renewed its use for the 2019-2020 crop seasons.
Bayer, which now owns Monsanto, said earlier this summer that it would pay up to $400 million to settle lawsuits filed by farmers and others claiming that dicamba had harmed their crops or other property. Bayer said its decision had nothing to do with the 9th Circuit's ruling and that it stands by the herbicide.
Bayer also announced this spring that it would halt construction of a billion-dollar dicamba-manufacturing plant in Luling, La., a project started years ago by Monsanto.