[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 148 (Wednesday, August 2, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39390-39392]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-18872]



-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[OPP-64027; FRL-4965-5]


Cancellation of Pesticides for Non-Payment of 1995 Registration 
Maintenance Fees

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: Since the amendments of October, 1988, the Federal 
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) has required 
payment of an annual maintenance fee to keep pesticide registrations in 
effect. The fee due last January 15 has gone unpaid for about 1,215 
registrations. Section 4(i)(5)(D) of FIFRA provides that the 
Administrator may cancel these registrations by order and without a 
hearing; orders to cancel all but a few of them have been issued within 
the past few days. The Agency is deferring cancellation for certain of 
these registrations, however, to permit time for affected users to 
explore alternatives to cancellation directly with the registrants.

DATES: Reports of agreements to support continued registration or 
transfer of the registrations for which cancellation is being deferred 
must be received by October 31, 1995.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To report agreements to support 
continued registration of any of the products for which cancellation 
has been deferred, for instructions on payment of delinquent 
maintenance fees for these products, or for further information on the 
maintenance fee program in general, contact by mail: John Jamula, 
Office of Pesticide Programs (7504C), Environmental Protection Agency, 
401 

[[Page 39391]]
M St., SW., Washington, DC 20460. Office location and telephone number: 
Rm. 226, Crystal Mall No. 2, 1921 Jefferson Davis Highway South, 
Arlington, VA 22202, (703) 305-6426. e-mail 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    Section 4(i)(5) of FIFRA, as amended in October, 1988 and again in 
December, 1991 requires that all pesticide registrants pay an annual 
registration maintenance fee, due by January 15 of each year, to keep 
their registrations in effect. This requirement applies to all 
registrations granted under section 3 as well as those granted under 
section 24(c) to meet special local needs. Registrations for which the 
fee is not paid are subject to cancellation by order and without a 
hearing.
    The 1990 Farm Bill amended FIFRA to allow the Administrator to 
reduce or waive maintenance fees for minor agricultural use pesticides 
when she determines that the fee would be likely to cause significant 
impact on the availability of the pesticide for the use. The Agency has 
waived the fee for 52 minor agricultural use registrations at the 
request of the registrants.
    In late November, 1994, all holders of either section 3 
registrations or section 24(c) registrations were sent lists of their 
active registrations, along with forms and instructions for responding. 
They were asked to identify which of their registrations they wished to 
maintain in effect, and to calculate and remit the appropriate 
maintenance fees. Most responses were received by the statutory 
deadline of January 15. A notice of intent to cancel was sent in mid-
March to companies who did not respond and to companies who responded, 
but paid for less than all of their registrations. Late payments of the 
fees were accepted until April 15, when the actual process of 
cancellation was begun.
    Since mailing the notices, EPA has maintained a toll-free inquiry 
number through which the questions of affected registrants have been 
answered.
    Maintenance fees have been paid for about 16,704 section 3 
registrations, or about 95 percent of the registrations on file in 
December, 1994. Fees have been paid for about 2,574 section 24(c) 
registrations, or about 90 percent of the total on file in November, 
1994. Cancellations for non-payment of the maintenance fee affect about 
940 section 3 registrations and about 275 section 24(c) registrations.

II. Product Cancellations not affecting status of Active Ingredient

    In the case of all but four section 3 registrations discussed in 
Section III below, the active ingredients will remain available in 
other registered products. We anticipate two types of impact for the 
bulk of these cancellations. First, some of these disappearing 
registrations will be survived in the market by substantially identical 
registrations. These substantially identical products may not, however, 
be readily available wherever a disappearing product was sold, so there 
may be local or regional disruptions while distribution patterns are 
adjusted. We expect these disruptions to be minor and temporary.
    The cancellation orders generally permit registrants to continue to 
sell and distribute existing stocks of the canceled products until 
January 15, 1996, the due date for the next annual registration 
maintenance fee. Existing stocks already in the hands of dealers or 
users, however, can generally be distributed, sold or used legally 
until they are exhausted. Existing stocks are defined as those stocks 
of a registered pesticide product which are currently in the U.S. and 
which have been packaged, labeled and released for shipment prior to 
the effective date of the order.
    The exceptions to these general rules are cases where more 
stringent restrictions on sale, distribution, or use of the products 
have already been imposed, through Special Reviews or other Agency 
actions. These general provisions for disposition of stocks should 
serve in most cases to cushion the impact of these cancellations while 
the market adjusts.
    Second, in some cases unique non-agricultural uses will disappear, 
although the active ingredients will remain available for different 
uses in other products. When this situation occurs, there may be more 
serious impacts on users of the canceled products. Once again, existing 
stocks of the canceled products already in channels of trade will be 
usable to mitigate these impacts in the short term. For the longer term 
the mechanisms of section 3 amendments and 24(c) registrations will 
remain available to obtain replacement registrations.
    Neither of these types of impact leaves users without the means to 
replace lost registrations; neither is considered to justify further 
deferral of cancellations for non-payment of the maintenance fee. Thus 
all these registrations for which the active ingredient will remain in 
other products have been canceled.

III. Cancellations Leading to Disappearance of Active Ingredients

    A second type of impact arises if an active ingredient that is now 
or has recently been available in the marketplace disappears. The 
Agency believes there are four registered active ingredients in this 
category. Of these four active ingredients, none has been subject to 
prior regulatory action and all are likely to disappear as a 
consequence of these cancellations. One is a plant growth regulator; 
one is a microbial; one is a microbiocide, and one is a bacteriostat. 
If the last section 3 registration for an ingredient disappears, the 
section 24(c) registration process is unlikely to be able to compensate 
for the loss.
    These four ingredients, grouped by these same general categories of 
use patterns, are listed along with the EPA Company Number of their 
registrants in the following Table 1.

      Table 1. -- Active Ingredients With Recent Production Pending     
    Cancellation of all Products for Non-payment of 1995 Registration   
           Maintenance Fees, in Sequence by Broad Use Pattern           
------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Chemical Name           Registration No.          Product Name     
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. Plant Growth                                                         
 Regulator.                                                             
  Glyphosate,                       000524-00332  Polado Plant Growth   
   Sesquisodium.                                   Salt Regulator       
B. Microbial Pesticide.                                                 
  Bacillus                          053219-00001  M-ONE Insecticide     
   Thuringiensis subsp.                                                 
   san diego.                                                           
C. Microbiocide........                                                 
  Amines, N-coco alkyl-             010349-00014  NALCO VISCO 1151      
   trimethylenedi-,                                                     
   adipates.                                                            
D. Bacteriostat........                                                 
  Quaternary ammonium               010349-00003  NALCO ADOMALL         
   compounds, benzyl-                                                   
   C10-18-                                                              
   alkylbis(hydroxy                                                     
   ethyl)-, chloride.                                                   
------------------------------------------------------------------------



[[Page 39392]]

    Because these active ingredients are likely to disappear with their 
product registration, the Agency has deferred for 90 days the 
cancellation of these 4 registrations. During that time those 
registrants or other affected persons may make arrangements to continue 
the registration.
    We encourage individual users or user groups who are concerned 
about the potential loss of these active ingredients to work directly 
with the registrant identified by the first 6 digits of the Reg. No. in 
Table 1 to persuade them to continue to support the ingredient, or to 
identify third parties who would be willing to support the ingredient 
if the registration were transferred to them. The full names and 
addresses of current registrants appear in Table 2 below. We also 
encourage users to consult with the Cooperative Extension Service or 
other local sources to identify alternatives to these active 
ingredients.
    If the Agency is notified within 90 days of this notice at the 
address given above either (1) that the registrant will continue to 
support the registration, or (2) that an agreement has been reached to 
transfer the registration to another party, we will reinstate the 
registration to full active status as soon as the delinquent 
maintenance fee payment is received. It should be emphasized, however, 
that any such registrations would still be subject to all requirements 
for reregistration, including reregistration fees (except as they may 
be reduced through the statutory provisions for small businesses or low 
volume uses).


 Table 2. -- Registrants of Selected Registrations Pending Cancellation 
          for Non-Payment of 1995 Registration Maintenance Fee          
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 EPA Company No.                  Company Name and Address              
------------------------------------------------------------------------
000524...........  Monsanto Co., 700 14th St., N.W., Suite 1100,        
                    Washington, DC 20005.                               
010349...........  NALCO Chemical Co., One NALCO Center, Box 87,        
                    Naperville, IL 60563.                               
053219...........  MYCOGEN Corp., 4980 Carroll Canyon Rd., San Diego, CA
                    92121.                                              
------------------------------------------------------------------------


    In addition to publishing this notice in the Federal Register, we 
are sending it directly to the States, to the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, and to other parties who have previously expressed concern 
for minor uses. They should be receiving the notice at approximately 
the same time it is published. We hope that this extraordinary 
notification effort, and the deferral of cancellations for the most 
sensitive registrations, will serve to prevent any avoidable loss of 
critical minor use pesticides.
    Because so many registrations are involved, it would be impractical 
to list those which have been canceled in this notice. Complete lists 
of registrations canceled for non-payment of the maintenance fee will, 
however, be available for reference during normal business hours in the 
OPP Public Docket, Room 1128, Crystal Mall 2, 1921 Jefferson Davis 
Highway South, Arlington VA, and at each EPA Regional Office. Product-
specific status inquiries may be made by telephone by calling toll-free 
1-800-444-7255.

List of Subjects

    Environmental protection, Agricultural commodities, Pesticides and 
pests.

    Dated: July 19, 1995.

Daniel M. Barolo,
Director, Office of Pesticide Programs.

[FR Doc. 95-18872 Filed 8-1-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-F