NORTHWEST COALITION FOR ALTERNATIVES TO PESTICIDES/NCAP

Atrazine (see Figure 1) is a widely used herbicide in the triazine family. Certain crops (primarily corn and re-lated crops) are tolerant of atrazine, and it is used to kill weeds without crop death in those situations.1 Atra-zine was first registered in the U.S. in 1959.2 Currently, the major manufac-turer is Syngenta (formerly Novartis Crop Protection, Inc.),3 but it is mar-keted by many companies.4 Use of atrazine has been the subject of sig-nificant concerns because it is one of the most commonly detected pesticide contaminants of rivers, streams, an