[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 148 (Wednesday, July 31, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39962-39964]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-19457]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[OPP-64030; FRL 5383-7]
Cancellation of Pesticides for Non-Payment of 1996 Registration
Maintenance Fees
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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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 1,126
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 29, 1996.
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 (7502C), Environmental Protection Agency,
401 M St., SW., Washington, DC 20460. Office location and telephone
number: Room 226, Crystal Mall No. 2, 1921 Jefferson Davis Highway,
Arlington, VA, (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 63 minor agricultural use registrations at the
request of the registrants.
In late November, 1995, 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 May 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 16,493 section 3
registrations, or about 94 percent of the registrations on file in
November. Fees have been paid for about 2,466 section 24(c)
registrations, or about 86 percent of the total on file in November.
Cancellations for non-payment of the maintenance fee affect about 812
section 3 registrations and about 314 section 24(c) registrations.
II. Product Cancellations not Affecting Status of Active Ingredient
In all cases but five 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 the
due date for the next annual registration maintenance fee, January 15,
1997. 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 action.
[[Page 39963]]
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 five registered active ingredients in this
category. Of these five active ingredients--none subject to prior
regulatory action, and all likely to disappear as a consequence of
these cancellations--one is a fungicide; one is a disinfectant; one is
a microbiocide, and two are an insecticide. If the last section 3
registration for an ingredient disappears, the section 24(c)
registration process cannot be used to bring back the canceled
ingredient.
All active ingredients can potentially have registered uses which
are critical minor uses. Determining whether a use is a critical minor
use is a fact specific exercise that requires gathering substantial
information and doing use and economic analyses, all of which would
consume significant Agency resources. EPA has determined that high cost
of conducting such analyses are not justified. Accordingly, the Agency
has decided to defer cancellation in all instances of active
ingredients that will disappear as a result of non-payment of
maintenance fees. In this way the Agency can ensure that no critical
minor use pesticides will be lost unnecessarily. In order to ensure
that the public health and environment are not adversely affected by
this policy, the Agency will not defer cancellations of products that
the Agency has concerns that continued use may cause unreasonable
adverse effects on the environment.
These five 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 1996 Registration
Maintenance Fees, in Sequence by Broad Use Pattern
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Chemical Name Registration No. Product Name
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A. Fungicide:.................
Pseudomonas Fluorescens..... 055638-00005 Dagger G
Biofungicide
EG1053...................... 055638-00006 Dagger
Manufacturing
Concentrate
B. Disinfectant:..............
Octylphenoxypolyethoxy- 010807-00105 REPCO Dyne Bowl
ethanol - iodine complex. Cleaner and
Disinfectant
C. Microbiocide:..............
Cocoamine Acetate........... 010445-00019 X-2 Corrosion
Inhibitor and
Microbiocide
D. Insecticide:...............
Butoxycarboxim.............. 035902-00001 Plant Pin
Sodium Carboxymethyl 065262-00001 CELL-U-WET
Cellulose. Insecticide
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Because these active ingredients are likely to disappear with their
product registration, the Agency has deferred for 90 days the
cancellation of these 6 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 fee is paid and 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
retain the registration in full active status. 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).
[[Page 39964]]
Table 2. -- Registrants of Selected Registrations Pending Cancellation
for Non-Payment of 1996 Registration Maintenance Fee
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EPA
Company Company Name & Address
No.
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010445.. Calgon Corp., Calgon Center - P.O. Box 1346, Pittsburgh, PA
15230.
010807.. AMREP Inc., 990 Industrial Dr., Marietta, GA 30062.
035902.. Wacker Cheiie GMBH, HANNS-SEIDEL-PLATZ 4, D-81737 MUNICH.
055638.. ECOGEN Inc., 2005 Cabot Blvd., West Langhorne, PA 19047.
065262.. Creative Services Inc., 22 Bay Brook Lane, Oak Brook, IL
60521.
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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, 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 15, 1996.
Daniel M. Barolo,
Director, Registration Division, Office of Pesticide Programs.
[FR Doc. 96-19457 Filed 7-30-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-F