June 2008-November 2010 Phone Log for Atrazine Special Review Docket 

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December 5, 2008 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP talked with Dan Campbell of Syngenta regarding various 

atrazine follow-up actions which included some discussion on the Atrazine Monitoring 

Program. Specifically, Dan Campbell indicated that only two more samples from 

Community Water Systems in the Atrazine Monitoring Program would need to be taken 

in 2008. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

January 15, 2009 

Suzanne Lazorko left a voice message for Kevin Costello of EPA/OPP requesting 

additional information regarding Community Water System data on EPA’s Atrazine 

Updates website. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

January 21, 2009 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP spoke with Suzanne Lazorko on the phone regarding the 

Community Water System data on EPA’s Atrazine Updates website. Suzanne Lazorko 

was interested in finished water concentrations of atrazine, particularly concentrations 

that were found in water systems identified in the January 2003 Atrazine IRED. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

January 23, 2009 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP spoke with Dan Campbell of Syngenta on the phone. 

During this conversation, Dan Campbell asked about the status of a waiver request they 

had submitted requesting decommissioning of some Community Water Systems from the 

Atrazine Monitoring Program. Melanie Biscoe indicated that she would need to discuss 

the request with EPA colleagues before knowing if or when any decommissioning could 

occur. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 
June 2008-November 2010 Phone Log for Atrazine Special Review Docket 

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February 3, 2009 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP spoke with Dan Campbell of Syngenta on the phone. 

During this conversation, Dan Campbell indicated he would check on Atrazine 

Monitoring Program spreadsheets with 90-day rolling averages and annual averages, and 

indicated that the data seemed to be in a database program rather than a spreadsheet. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

February 27, 2009 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP talked with Dan Campbell of Syngenta on the phone about 

OPP science division questions regarding Community Water System data. Dan Campbell 

indicated that they weren’t seeing atrazine levels changing in the way that OPP had 

described in questions OPP provided to Syngenta on February 27, 2009 (answered by 

Syngenta in writing on 4/17/09). Dan Campbell indicated that Syngenta had submitted 

data from Vermont, IL Community Water System, and Melanie Biscoe indicated she 

would check with Mary Frankenberry in the Environmental Fate and Effects Division to 

make sure they had all of it. Dan Campbell and Melanie Biscoe also discussed having a 

brief call with the Environmental Fate and Effects Division and the Human Health 

Division on about the questions OPP provided to Syngenta on February 27, 2009 

(answered by Syngenta in writing on 4/17/09). 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

April 14, 2009 

Jennifer Sass and Mae Wu of Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) called 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP and asked questions regarding how Atrazine Monitoring 

Program data might be used to calculate annual averages under the Safe Drinking Water 

Act. NRDC had heard that Evansville, IL might be using the Atrazine Monitoring 

Program data to avoid an MCL violation. Melanie Biscoe indicated that, in general, one 

would not select four random samples from each quarter, but would use the entire set of 

data in calculating an annual average if one were to use the Atrazine Monitoring Program 

data for that purpose. Melanie Biscoe also indicated that because Community Water 

Systems in the Atrazine Monitoring Program are sampled weekly/biweekly as opposed to 

quarterly, any given Community Water System is less likely to exceed the MCL when 

using Atrazine Monitoring Program data to calculate an annual average concentration of 

atrazine. NRDC was also interested in knowing whether the sample sites for the Atrazine 

Monitoring Program were in the same locations as the Safe Drinking Water Act 

(quarterly) sample sites. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 
June 2008-November 2010 Phone Log for Atrazine Special Review Docket 

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June 10, 2009 

Helen Sok of SWAPE called twice leaving a voicemail concerning Atrazine Monitoring 

Program data. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

June 12, 2009 

 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP and Dan Campbell of Syngenta talked on the phone about 

the recent posting of Atrazine Monitoring Program and Simazine Monitoring Program 

data on OPP’s Atrazine Updates website. Dan Campbell asked why total chlorotriazine 

and simazine data were posted in addition to atrazine data. Melanie Biscoe explained 

that because the mode of action is the same for the triazines and their common degradates 

and OPP looks at triazines and their common degradates in total to assess any possible 

risks, it made sense for OPP to post all the data together. Additionally, the atrazine 

parent compound is analyzed as part of the Simazine Monitoring Program so it would not 

make sense for OPP to leave those data off the Atrazine Updates website. Dan Campbell 

also requested information on entities that had requested the Atrazine Monitoring 

Program data, which Melanie Biscoe did not provide at that time. Dan Campbell 

indicated that Syngenta was concerned that individual Community Water Systems would 

be contacted as a result of the data posting. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

September 8, 2009 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP and Dan Campbell of Syngenta talked on the phone 

regarding various atrazine follow-up actions which included some discussion on the 

Atrazine Monitoring Program. Dan Campbell indicated that many Community Water 

Systems are/would be glad to stop monitoring because they see it as an extra program. 

Dan Campbell also indicated that the Kickapoo, KS and Linn Valley, KS Community 

Water Systems were difficult to get samples from because they were private 

communities. Dan Campbell also indicated that Syngenta would be doing a statistical 

analysis to re-look at the frequency of monitoring scheme for Community Water Systems 

in the Atrazine Monitoring Program. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

September 9, 2009 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP and Dan Campbell of Syngenta talked on the phone 

regarding various atrazine follow-up actions which included some discussion on the 

Atrazine Monitoring Program. Specifically, Dan Campbell of Syngenta indicated that reentering the 31 Community Water Systems that had been decommissioned earlier in 2009 

would be very difficult to do because the Community Water Systems do not want to be 
June 2008-November 2010 Phone Log for Atrazine Special Review Docket 

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part of the Atrazine Monitoring Program anymore. At that time EPA had not proposed 

re-entering those systems into the Atrazine Monitoring Program. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

September 10, 2009 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP and Alan Robeson of the American Water Works 

Association (AWWA) talked on the phone. Alan Roberson indicated that he had talked 

with the Office of Water regarding atrazine and that he wanted to meet with OPP 

regarding atrazine and source water protection and the state of the science. Melanie 

Biscoe asked about back-and-forth direct communications with Community Water 

Systems. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

September 30, 2009 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP talked with Dan Campbell of Syngenta regarding various 

atrazine follow-up actions which included some discussion on the Atrazine Monitoring 

Program. Dan Campbell indicated that Syngenta was contacting Community Water 

Systems in the Atrazine Monitoring Program as a follow-up to the media reports on 

atrazine and drinking water. With regard to the actual drinking water monitoring, Dan 

Campbell indicated that they had resolved a previous issue they had had with Kickapoo, 

KS Community Water System; Linn Valley, KS CWS indicated that it was not interested 

in participating in the Atrazine Monitoring Program, however. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

October 26, 2009, 4:30 PM 

Bob McNally of EPA/OPP returned a phone call to Janis McFarland of Syngenta. 

Bob and Janis discussed follow-up steps from the conference call completed an hour or 

so earlier with atrazine registrants. This was to plan the agenda for the Nov. 3 meeting 

with registrants. 

In particular, Bob and Janis discussed when Syngenta might have pre-existing data 

analyzed that could address the issue of daily spikes, that may or may not be captured in 

the current monitoring program. It appears unlikely Syngenta will have that data fully 

analyzed by EPA’s Nov. 3 follow-up meeting with registrants, since they are also 

preparing their presentations for the SAP that same day; but Bob and Janis did agree to 

have at least a conceptual discussion with OPP’s statisticians on the type of data 

Syngenta has – thousands of data points – and whether these data are sufficient or 

whether additional monitoring might be helpful. These data have been gathered in a 

variety of locales, from reservoirs, to creeks adjacent to fields, etc, over a decade or more. 
June 2008-November 2010 Phone Log for Atrazine Special Review Docket 

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Phone Log prepared by – Bob McNally & Melanie Biscoe 

January 11, 2010

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP and Dan Campbell of Syngenta talked on the phone 

regarding various atrazine follow-up actions which included some discussion on the 

Atrazine Monitoring Program. Specifically, Dan Campbell of Syngenta indicated that 

providing the Atrazine Monitoring Program data in a spreadsheet would take some time 

because it needs to be manually exported to Microsoft Excel. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

February 22, 2010 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP and Dan Campbell of Syngenta talked about Atrazine 

Monitoring Program (AMP) data on the phone. Syngenta indicated that it had added a 

confidentiality claim to the AMP spreadsheets it provides to OPP, and asked why OPP 

needed the 2009 drinking water data spreadsheets at that time. Melanie Biscoe of 

EPA/OPP indicated that OPP needed the spreadsheets primarily to be able to work with 

the data, but also expects that the spreadsheets would be posted to the Atrazine Updates 

website for transparency. Dan Campbell indicated that Syngenta would prefer that data 

be posted according to the county the Community Water System (CWS) serves rather 

than the name of the CWS itself. Melanie Biscoe indicated that she would check on the 

appropriateness of that with OPP management, but also said that all the data are available 

by FOIA regardless. Dan Campbell also said that Syngenta would prefer that the data be 

posted only as maximum 90-day rolling averages, as it has been posted in the past, noting 

that Syngenta was not opposed to transparency but opposed to the way various 

organizations (mis)used the data. Melanie Biscoe indicated that any organization’s use of 

the data could be taken into account and evaluated through the atrazine re-evaluation 

process, if necessary. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

March 22, 2010 

Dr. Paul Rosenfeld of Soil Water Air Protection Enterprise (SWAPE) called and left a 

voicemail for Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP regarding Atrazine Monitoring Program data. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 
June 2008-November 2010 Phone Log for Atrazine Special Review Docket 

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April 19, 2010 

Dr. Paul Rosenfeld of Soil Water Air Protection Enterprise (SWAPE) called Melanie 

Biscoe of EPA/OPP regarding the availability of Atrazine Monitoring Program data. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

May 28, 2010 

Ellis Jacobs of Able Law called Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP regarding the availability of 

Atrazine Monitoring Program data for Ohio. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

June 21, 2010 

Ralph Grossen left a voicemail for Robert McNally of EPA/OPP regarding a study being 

conducted by the University of Minnesota on cancer and atrazine and the study’s use of 

the TRECI model, that Ralph Grossen believed was implemented by EPA in the early 

1990s. Ralph Grossen was interested in learning the status of the TRECI model at EPA. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

June 21, 2010 

Ellis Jacobs of Able Law called Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP regarding Atrazine 

Monitoring Program data for Ohio. 

Ellis Jacobs asked what the difference was between the Atrazine Monitoring Program 

(AMP) data and the Simazine Monitoring Program (SMP) data. Melanie Biscoe 

explained why atrazine data were included in SMP spreadsheets, and say that Hillsboro, 

IL and Farina IL Community Water Systems (CWSs) are in both the AMP and the SMP. 

Melanie Biscoe explains that EPA looks at the total chlorotriazine levels in the AMP and 

SMP water monitoring because atrazine, simazine, and their common degradates have 

similar modes of action. Melanie Biscoe also explains that atrazine is the more 

predominant contaminant in CWSs in the AMP, even though simazine is monitored in 

AMP systems as well. Melanie Biscoe says there are many more CWSs in the AMP than 

the SMP. 

Ellis Jacobs requests that EPA provide him with the following: 

• AMP data with Ohio CWS data broken out, then aggregated over time (years 

lined up next to each other), and to also separate raw and finished water data. 

o Melanie Biscoe indicated she would have to get back to him on this 

request. 

• The list of systems added to the AMP since 2003 

o Melanie Biscoe indicated that OPP could provide that. 
June 2008-November 2010 Phone Log for Atrazine Special Review Docket 

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• The data upon which the initial set of AMP CWSs were selected (the SDWA 

data) 

o Melanie Biscoe indicated that if Ellis Jacobs wanted SDWA quarterly 

sample data used to determine initial AMP selection, he would have to ask 

the state for those data. Alternatively if he wanted to compare atrazine 

annual average atrazine concentrations under the Safe Drinking Water 

Act, he could also get that from the state, or from the CWS itself through 

links on the OW website, or if the CWS did not have a website the 

information on violations could be obtained from the EPA Office of Water 

via a FOIA request. Melanie Biscoe also indicated that she would check 

within OPP to see if OPP had any additional relevant data that could be 

made available. 

Melanie Biscoe indicated that there were approximately 10 CWS MCL violations for 

atrazine in the last decade, and that the AMP in contrast found that several of those 

violations would not have occurred if the annual average had been calculated using data 

from more frequent sampling. 

Ellis Jacobs indicated that he is doing follow-up work to NRDC’s “Poisoning the Well” 

report, but for Ohio specifically. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

June 24, 2010, 4:00 PM 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP contacted Dan Campbell of Syngenta and requested 

information on atrazine levels detected in Drexel CWS for 2010, as EPA had gotten 

reports that an MCL violation has occurred in that CWS. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

August 20, 2010 

Brian Davis left a voicemail for Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP saying that he volunteered 

for a start-up at the University of Minnesota that has a technology to treat atrazine in 

drinking water; he wanted to know if the EPA or others would be interested in that 

technology. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

 

August 24, 2010 

Bob McNally of EPA/OPP called NRDC’s Jennifer Sass at the request of EPA’s front 

office. Dr. Sass had heard rumors that the Agency was planning to reach decisions on 

atrazine this fall. Dr. Sass also indicated that she felt the Agency should reach decisions 

before the end of the year. Bob informed Dr. Sass that the Agency had another SAP 
June 2008-November 2010 Phone Log for Atrazine Special Review Docket 

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scheduled on atrazine’s cancer issues for 2011; since EPA had committed to include the 

Agricultural Health Study (AHS) cancer epidemiology data in its atrazine re-evaluation, 

EPA would wait until it received those data, which are behind schedule, and received the 

report from the SAP before considering what the next steps, if any, might be on atrazine. 

Bob directed her to the Atrazine Updates webpage for more information on the AHS and 

the 2011 SAP. 

Phone Log prepared by – Bob McNally & Melanie Biscoe 

September 2, 2010 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP left an email for Brian Davis following up on his August 20, 

2010 voicemail indicating that while the atrazine contamination technology he works on 

may not be germane to OPP’s regulatory decision-making per se, EPA would be 

interested in any papers he has published regarding this technology or any additional 

information he would like to provide. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

September 21, 2010 

Helen Sok of Soil Water Air Protection Enterprise (SWAPE) called Melanie Biscoe of 

EPA/OPP regarding an email she had sent the week before regarding Atrazine 

Monitoring Program data. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

October 12, 2010 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP talked with Dan Campbell of Syngenta on the phone 

regarding the availability of the well vulnerability study EPA understood Syngenta to 

have completed four years prior. Dan Campbell indicated that he was not sure if a well 

vulnerability study had actually been completed, but would ask his colleagues at 

Syngenta about the status. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe 

October 18, 2010 

Melanie Biscoe of EPA/OPP talked with Dan Campbell of Syngenta on the phone 

regarding the anticipated completion date for well vulnerability study, which Syngenta 

estimated to be at the end of December 2010. 

Phone Log prepared by – Melanie Biscoe