Tillery atrazine hearing cancelled

A hearing for pending matters in class action suits over alleged atrazine contamination in Illinois water supplies has been canceled.

Madison County Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder ordered a hearing postponed Sept. 16 after it became clear that an on-going trial of a slip and fall accident suit against an Edwardsville Moto Mart would continue through Friday.

The hearing was to cover pending sanctions motions as well as a move to add five municipalities as plaintiffs to the class action suits.

The hearing was scheduled in suits brought by the Holiday Shores Sanitation District, as class representative, against multiple companies that make the popular weed killer.

No new date has been set for the hearing as of Thursday.

Crowder inherited the cases from Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack who will retire at the end of his current term.

The suit alleges that atrazine contaminates drinking water and that it causes reproductive problems and fetal death in humans.

Defendants Syngenta Crop Protection Inc. and United Agri-Products Inc. were granted a protection order covering certain discovery issues earlier this week. That order had been the subject of heated debate in a hearing before Crowder at the beginning of September.

Growmark is a defendant in all of the cases.

Drexel is represented by Daniel Cray, according to court records.

Syngenta and UAP are represented by Kurtis Reeg. Reeg also represents Syngenta and United Agri-Products

Growmark is represented by Robert Shultz. Shultz also represents Dow.

Makhteshim is represented by Russell Scott.

Holiday Shores and the class are represented by Stephen Tillery.