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A. LE FLOCH
SUGARCANE growers have angered environmentalists by winning six weeks to convince the national regulator they should be able to continue to use the weed-killing pesticide Diuron, branded a major threat to the Great Barrier Reef and the nation’s waterways.
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority was to have suspended the use of Diuron from tomorrow, after an extensive review, because of its effects on waterways.
But after lobbying from peak body Canegrowers, which says the sugar industry has cut its use of the pesticide and changed its spraying practices to reduce environmental damage — the authority put back the decision until after September 30 to allow the industry time to make a case for the pesticide’s continued use.
Diuron is used to kill weeds just before cane is planted and while it is young, but WWF Australia says it should be banned, citing Queensland University and Queensland Health-sponsored research that found it is one of the major contributors to pressure on the Great Barrier Reef.
WWF Australia national manager of freshwater issues Nick Heath said he was disappointed at the decision to delay suspending the use of Diuron.
"The cane industry has had eight years to find an alternative," Mr Heath said.
"Its use has increased, it’s a threat to the Great Barrier Reef, and they should be banning this chemical now."
WWF says Diuron causes 75 per cent of the pesticide pollution on the reef and is found at levels toxic to coral within up to 60km of the World Heritage Area.
"It is likely Diuron is poisoning the health of seagrass and coral, further contributing to the current heavy die-off of hundreds of turtles and dugong," Mr Heath said. "We call on the federal government to move swiftly to ban this chemical."
But Canegrowers chief executive Steve Greenwood said there had been a massive change in the way the industry used the pesticide over the past five years, and its use had fallen from 3.6kg per hectare to 1.8kg per hectare over that period.
He said the Reef Rescue program, which imposed tough new restrictions on the use of pesticides and grants for new equipment, had changed the way growers used the pesticide, and the APVMA should take the new usage practices into account.
He said there was no ready alternative to Diuron, and suspension of its use would drive up costs for canegrowers when they were under pressure from rising fuel and irrigation costs.
Diuron has been banned in Britain and moves are under way to deregister it in Europe.
In recommending the pesticide’s use be suspended in Australia, except in anti-fouling paint and for algal control, the APVMA found Diuron presented a "risk to most aquatic systems".