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Dicamba can drift off of one soybean field that is resistant to the herbicide and damage a non-resistant field nearby.
Seth Tackett/WTIULawmakers voted to send a bill to the governor on Wednesday that would create a working group to look into penalties for misusing pesticides.
The original bill would have increased the maximum fines for farmers and others who abuse products like dicamba — a controversial weed killer that can drift off of fields and kill neighboring crops.
But the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Don Lehe (R-Brookston), says lawmakers and pesticide users couldn’t agree on how high those fines should be. He says they compromised by leaving fines as they are, but creating a working group to study the issue.
READ MORE: Two Bills Aim To Stop Dicamba, Pesticide Misuse
“To report back to the legislature by Dec. 1 on their recommendations how we can better deal with this in the next session,” Lehe says.
A similar state bill would have doubled maximum penalties for those who misuse pesticides, but it failed in a Senate committee.
Contact Rebecca at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.
Indiana Environmental reporting is supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute, an Indiana University Grand Challenge project developing Indiana-specific projections and informed responses to problems of environmental change.
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