Pesticides

Earlier this year, a railroad accident resulted in large quantities of the pesticide metam-sodium being spilled into the Sacramento River. This incident is particularly disturbing because four years ago the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received information from the registrant on the health and environmental effects of metam-sodium and did not review the studies until after the spill occurred. As a result, EPA was not in a position to warn pregnant women and workers near the Sacramento River of possible hazards. These two testimonies address three questions: (1) Does EPA know the universe of studies that it has received from registrants under section 6(a)(2) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act? (2) Will EPA's recent initiatives to improve the processing of these studies ensure that all will be identified and reviewed in a timely manner? (3) Does EPA have a tracking system to ensure that these studies are appropriately identified and reviewed? GAO's short answer to all three questions is "no." EPA may not have identified all unreasonable adverse effects studies that it has received from registrants, recent procedural changes will not ensure that all studies submitted to EPA will be reviewed, and EPA's tracking system does not provide the assurance EPA managers need to believe that the job is being done right.