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Report by National Resources Defense Council says that average levels of atrazine in two towns in Illinois exceeded EPA standards. Excessive amounts have also been found in two Missouri watersheds.

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A popular weed killer that’s been suspected of causing frog deformities is turning up in drinking water systems throughout the country including some in Missouri and Illinois, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Banned in the European Union because of safety concerns, atrazine was found in 90 percent of all drinking water samples taken from 139 community water systems between 2003 and 2004, according to the group’s analysis of data gathered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Those samples included water taken from systems in Missouri and Illinois. Two sysvems in Illinois – Mount Olive in Macoupin County and Evansville in Randolph County – had annual running averages that exceeded EPA’s drinking water standard of three parts per billion.

Those systems were among three in the nation that had annual averages above EPA’s threshold, according to the group’s report “Poisoning the Well.”