The Environmental Protection Agency has announced new draft guidelines for the use of dicamba, a powerful but controversial herbicide prized by some farmers for control of weeds in crops like corn and soybeans.

Dicamba has been approved by the EPA in the past only to see that approval fall, after some farmers complained that herbicide sprayed on their neighbors’ fields can drift into theirs and kill valuable crops.

Two men looking out of frame.

Lee Nunn (right) explains his herbicide mixing process to Turner Bridgforth (left), Senior Advisor for Agricultural Rural Affairs at the EPA.

Credit: Chase McGee

Lee Nunn grows wheat, cotton, corn, and soybeans on around sixteen hundred acres near Madison, Georgia.

He lost money when dicamba was banned last year.

But he says only he’s allowed to run the machine that sprays it and other herbicides on his farm.

A shed with equipment for mixing chemicals.

Lee Nunn uses this workstation to mix chemicals and clean the equipment that distributes it.

Credit: Chase McGee / GPB

"I'm the only one that sits in the seat on it," he said. "Like I said, my son will move it around and wash it or clean it or do things like that, but I do 100% of the spraying with this machine."

The EPA is asking for feedback from farmers on new dicamba guidelines for use – one sticking point is a ban on application when it’s hotter than ninety five degrees, which can make it more likely to drift.

Tags: Georgia  Atlanta  Macon  Savannah  herbicides  farming  soybeans  cotton  regulations  Environmental Protection Agency