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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
14-P-0322
July 24, 2014
Why We Did This Review
We conducted this review of the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA's) Conventional
Reduced Risk Pesticide (CRRP)
Program to determine whether it
was meeting its goal of reducing
risks to human health and the
environment by encouraging the
development, registration and
use of pesticide products that
are lower risk.
Pesticides are widely used in
agricultural, commercial and
household settings. Once
released into the environment,
pesticides have the potential to
pollute rivers, groundwater, air,
soil, wildlife and food. The EPA
developed the CRRP Program to
quickly register reduced risk
alternatives to those currently on
the market. Reduced risk
pesticides are designed to be
less harmful to humans, birds,
fish and/or plants; have lower
potential for groundwater
contamination; and require lower
application rates.
This report addresses the
following EPA goal or
cross-agency strategy:
• Ensuring the safety of
chemicals and preventing
pollution.
For further information,
contact our public affairs office at
(202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.aov/oia/reports/2014/
20140724-14-P-0322.pdf
Impact of EPA's Conventional Reduced Risk
Pesticide Program Is Declining
What We Found
The number of newly registered
reduced risk pesticides may
continue to decline unless the
EPA can reduce barriers to
participation.
The impact of the CRRP Program has
declined over the last 10 years. The CRRP
Program is registering fewer reduced-risk
pesticides compared to the number
registered prior to the 2004 implementation
of the Pesticide Registration Improvement
Act (PRIA). In our opinion, PRIA is a factor in declining CRRP impact because it
increased the cost to register reduced risk pesticides and decreased the time-
to-market savings that reduced risk pesticides previously had over conventional
pesticides. The EPA does not have the statutory authority to provide fee-
reduction incentives for companies continuing to develop and register reduced
risk pesticides.
Implementing steps to remove participation obstacles can increase participation
and the impacts of the CRRP Program. Moreover, improving the measurement
of the program's outcomes can more accurately capture the impacts of the
CRRP Program. The program's existing performance measure focuses on the
use of reduced risk pesticides in agriculture. The measure does not capture the
complete population of CRRP products in the marketplace. For example, CRRP
products used in non-agricultural markets—such as residences or around food
products—are not captured, and the EPA has not developed ways to cost
effectively collect non-agricultural use data.
Noteworthy Achievements
The CRRP Program has succeeded in bringing reduced risk pesticides to
market since 1994. More than 727 reduced risk pesticide uses have been
approved and reduced risk pesticides account for approximately 22 percent of
farm acres treated in the United States each year. Also, the CRRP Program has
successfully partnered with the Interregional Research Project No. 4 to make
reduced risk pesticides widely available to a diverse population of growers.
Recommendations and Agency Response
We recommend that the Assistant Administrator for Chemical Safety and
Pollution Prevention seek authority from Congress to reduce PRIA application
fees for reduced risk pesticides to increase participation, and develop measures
that better capture the impact of the entire CRRP Program. The EPA agreed
with our recommendations and has proposed acceptable corrective actions.
All recommendations are resolved.

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