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One important job that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has is approving new pesticides that chemical companies want to bring to market, as well as ensuring that older pesticides still meet today’s safety standards.
The EPA has more work to do these days, but it has fewer employees to do it, agency data released on April 11 shows.
Since 2005, the number of completed pesticide registrations has more than doubled, while the number of employees overseeing the process has dropped by a quarter.
In 2004, Congress passed a law aimed at speeding the process of registering these pesticides. The Pesticide Registration Improvement Act requires pesticide manufacturers to pay fees to help fund the review process.
Registrants pay for the number of products registered, so the agency receives more money for more products.
But this money has not allowed the pesticide staff to keep pace with the number of new products.
The EPA highlighted this discrepancy in a work plan released on April 11 designed to address its backlog of finding whether new pesticides violate the Endangered Species Act.
Currently, the agency has a nearly two-decade-long backlog of Endangered Species Act decisions. The EPA said this was “an unsustainable and legally tenuous situation.”
In the graph below, “FTEs” means the number of positions available to review old and new registrations for pesticides.
Originally published by Investigate Midwest.
