Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to: (1) assess pesticides' leaching potential in groundwater; (2) regulate those pesticides that could leach into groundwater; and (3) consider human exposure to pesticides in groundwater when setting and reviewing limits for pesticide residues in food.
GAO found that: (1) EPA made limited progress in assessing the leaching potential of the 16 pesticides it identified as groundwater contaminants in 1985; (2) 40 percent of EPA pesticide studies were unacceptable and may have to be redone, and it could be years before EPA has complete data to conduct comprehensive leaching assessments for those pesticides; (3) insufficient resources, staff shortages, low priorities, and ineffective policies addressing the potential for groundwater contamination contributed to the limited progress; (4) the EPA system for tracking data requirements and studies was unreliable; (5) EPA did not fully or consistently utilize the regulatory measures available to reduce groundwater contamination; (6) groundwater contamination was not among the specific criteria in the EPA regulation for initiating special reviews; (7) EPA plans to request that states develop management plans for pesticides that leach into groundwater; and (8) in setting and reviewing tolerances for pesticide residues in food, EPA did not routinely consider human exposure resulting from pesticides in groundwater.
