[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 75 (Wednesday, April 19, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20095-20097]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-5749]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0507; FRL-7776-4]


Sodium Chlorate; Notice of Receipt of Requests to Voluntarily 
Cancel, Amend or Terminate Uses of Certain Pesticide Registrations

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with section 6(f)(1) of the Federal Insecticide, 
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), as amended, EPA is issuing a 
notice of receipt of requests by the registrants to voluntarily amend 
their registrations to terminate uses of certain products containing 
the pesticide sodium chlorate. The requests would terminate sodium 
chlorate use in or on residential use sites. The requests would not 
terminate the last sodium chlorate products registered for use in the 
U.S. EPA intends to grant these requests at the close of the comment 
period for this announcement unless the Agency receives substantive 
comments within the comment period that would merit its further review 
of the requests, or unless the registrants withdraw their requests 
within this period. Upon acceptance of these requests, any sale, 
distribution, or use of products listed in this notice will be 
permitted only if such sale, distribution, or use is consistent with 
the terms as described in the final order.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 19, 2006.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by docket identification 
(ID) number EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0507, by one of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) Regulatory Public 
Docket (7502C), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania 
Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001.
     Hand Delivery: OPP Regulatory Public Docket, Environmental 
Protection Agency, Rm. 119, Crystal Mall 2, 1801 S. Bell St., 
Arlington, VA. Deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal 
hours of operation (8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
excluding legal holidays). Special arrangements should be made for 
deliveries of boxed information. The Docket telephone number is (703) 
305-5805.
     Important Note: OPP will be moving to a new location the 
first week of May 2006. As a result, from Friday, April 28 to Friday, 
May 5, 2006, the OPP Regulatory Public Docket will NOT be accepting any 
deliveries at the Crystal Mall 2 address and this facility 
will be closed to the public. Beginning on May 8, 2006, the OPP 
Regulatory Public Docket will reopen at 8:30 a.m. and deliveries will 
be accepted in Rm. S-4400, One Potomac Yard (South Building), 2777 S. 
Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202. The mail code for the mailing 
address will change to (7502P), but will otherwise remain the same. The 
OPP Regulatory Public Docket telephone number and hours of operation 
will remain the same after the move.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPP-
2005-0507. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the docket without change and may be made available on-line at 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you 
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through regulations.gov or e-
mail. The Federal regulations.gov website is an ``anonymous access'' 
system, which means EPA will not know your identity or contact 
information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you 
send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without going through 
regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be automatically captured and 
included as part of the comment that is placed in the docket and made 
available on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA 
recommends that you include your name and other contact information in 
the body of your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA 
cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot 
contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your 
comment. Electronic files should avoid the use of special characters, 
any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the docket index. 
Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly 
available, e.g., CBI or other information whose disclosure is 
restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted 
material, is not placed on the Internet and will be publicly available 
only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket materials are 
available in the electronic docket at http://www.regulations.gov, or, 
if only available in hard copy, at the OPP Regulatory Public Docket at 
the location identified under ``Delivery'' and ``Important Note.'' The 
hours of operation for this docket facility are from 8:30 a.m. to 4 
p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The docket 
telephone number is (703) 305-5805.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Felicia Fort, Special Review and 
Reregistration Division (7508C), Office of Pesticide Programs, 
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number: (703) 305-7478; fax 
number: (703) 308-8005; e-mail address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

A. Does this Action Apply to Me?

    This action is directed to the public in general, and may be of 
interest to a wide range of stakeholders including environmental, human 
health, and agricultural advocates; the chemical industry; pesticide 
users; and members of the public interested in the sale, distribution, 
or use of pesticides. Since others also may be interested, the Agency 
has not attempted to describe all the specific entities that may be 
affected by this action. If you have any questions regarding the 
applicability of this action

[[Page 20096]]

to a particular entity, consult the person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.

B. What Should I Consider as I Prepare My Comments for EPA?

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to EPA through 
regulations.gov or e-mail. Clearly mark the part or all of the 
information that you claim to be CBI. For CBI information in a disk or 
CD ROM that you mail to EPA, mark the outside of the disk or CD ROM as 
CBI and then identify electronically within the disk or CD ROM the 
specific information that is claimed as CBI. In addition to one 
complete version of the comment that includes information claimed as 
CBI, a copy of the comment that does not contain the information 
claimed as CBI must be submitted for inclusion in the public docket. 
Information so marked will not be disclosed except in accordance with 
procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2.
    2. Tips for preparing your comments. When submitting comments, 
remember to:
    i. Identify the document by docket ID number and other identifying 
information (subject heading, Federal Register date and page number).
    ii. Follow directions. The agency may ask you to respond to 
specific questions or organize comments by referencing a Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number.
    iii. Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives and 
substitute language for your requested changes.
    iv. Describe any assumptions and provide any technical information 
and/or data that you used.
    v. If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how you 
arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be 
reproduced.
    vi. Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns and 
suggest alternatives.
    vii. Explain your views as clearly as possible, avoiding the use of 
profanity or personal threats.
    viii. Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period 
deadline identified.

II. Background on the Receipt of Requests to Cancel and/or Amend 
Registrations to Delete Uses

    This notice announces receipt by EPA of requests from registrants, 
Kerr-McGee Chemical, LLC (now Tronox, LLC) and EKA Chemicals, Inc., to 
amend to terminate uses of four sodium chlorate product registrations. 
Sodium chlorate is used agriculturally as a defoliant and dessicant, 
primarily on cotton, however it is also applied to a wide variety of 
other crops including, but not limited to, rice, corn, soybeans, dry 
beans, potatoes, sunflowers, flax, safflower, chili peppers (for 
processing only), grain sorghum, and wheat. As a non-selective 
herbicide it is also applied to industrial/non-crop areas such as 
rights-of-ways, building perimeters, ditch banks, bleachers, airport 
runways, vacant lots, fire hydrants, or as a pre-paving treatment. Its 
residential uses include applications as a spot/edging treatment to 
driveway cracks, and crevices, around foundations, and under or around 
wood decks. Sodium chlorate is also used as an antimicrobial agent to 
generate chlorine dioxide. In letters dated September 26, 2005 and 
December 6, 2005, Kerr-McGee Chemical, LLC (now Tronox, LLC); and EKA 
Chemicals, Inc requested EPA to amend to terminate uses of pesticide 
product registrations identified in Table 1 of this notice. 
Specifically, the labels for the products listed in Table 1 will 
contain a statement indicating that the product is not for formulation 
of end use products for residential sites and/or prohibiting the use of 
these products for residential use. The registrants named above are no 
longer supporting these uses and wish to have them removed from product 
labels.

III. What Action is the Agency Taking?

    This notice announces receipt by EPA of requests from registrants 
to amend to terminate uses of sodium chlorate product registrations. 
The affected products and the registrants making the requests are 
identified in Tables 1 and 2 of this unit.
    Under section 6(f)(1)(A) of FIFRA, registrants may request, at any 
time, that their pesticide registrations be canceled or amended to 
terminate one or more pesticide uses. Section 6(f)(1)(B) of FIFRA 
requires that before acting on a request for voluntary cancellation, 
EPA must provide a 30-day public comment period on the request for 
voluntary cancellation or use termination. In addition, section 
6(f)(1)(C) of FIFRA requires that EPA provide a 180-day comment period 
on a request for voluntary cancellation or termination of any minor 
agricultural use before granting the request, unless:
    1. The registrants request a waiver of the comment period, or
    2. The Administrator determines that continued use of the pesticide 
would pose an unreasonable adverse effect on the environment.
    The sodium chlorate registrants have requested that EPA waive the 
180-day comment period. EPA will provide a 30-day comment period on the 
proposed requests.
    Unless a request is withdrawn by the registrant within 30 days of 
publication of this notice, or if the Agency determines that there are 
substantive comments that warrant further review of this request, an 
order will be issued canceling and/or amending the affected 
registrations.

 Table 1.-- Sodium Chlorate Product Registrations with Pending Requests
                              for Amendment
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         Registration No.            Product name           Company
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49620-2                           EKA Sodium          EKA Chemicals,
                                   Chlorate            Inc.
                                   Technical
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49620-6                           EKA Sodium          EKA Chemicals,
                                   Chlorate Tech 47    Inc.
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2342-897                          Sodium Chlorate     Kerr-McGee
                                                       Chemical, LLC
                                                       (now Tronox, LLC)
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2342-977                          Sodium Chlorate     Kerr-McGee
                                   Solution            Chemical, LLC
                                                       (now Tronox, LLC)
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    Table 2 of this unit includes the names and addresses of record for 
the registrants of the products listed in Table 1 of this unit.

     Table 2.-- Registrants Requesting Voluntary Cancellation and/or
                               Amendments
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              EPA Company No.                 Company name and address
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2342                                        Kerr-McGee Chemical, LLC
                                             (now Tronox, LLC)
                                            123 Robert S. Kerr Avenue
                                            Oklahoma City, OK 73102
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49620                                       EKA Chemicals, Inc.
                                            1775 West Oak Commons Court
                                            Marietta, GA 30062-2254
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IV. What is the Agency's Authority for Taking this Action?

    Section 6(f)(1) of FIFRA provides that a registrant of a pesticide 
product may at any time request that any of its pesticide registrations 
be canceled or amended to terminate one or more uses. FIFRA further 
provides that, before

[[Page 20097]]

acting on the request, EPA must publish a notice of receipt of any such 
request in the Federal Register. Thereafter, following the public 
comment period, the Administrator may approve such a request.

V. Procedures for Withdrawal of Request and Considerations for 
Reregistration of Sodium Chlorate

    Registrants who choose to withdraw a request for cancellation must 
submit such withdrawal in writing to the person listed under FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, postmarked before 30 days after date of 
publication in the Federal Register. This written withdrawal of the 
request for cancellation will apply only to the applicable FIFRA 
section 6(f)(1) request listed in this notice. If the products have 
been subject to a previous cancellation action, the effective date of 
cancellation and all other provisions of any earlier cancellation 
action are controlling.

VI. Provisions for Disposition of Existing Stocks

    Existing stocks are those stocks of registered pesticide products 
which are currently in the United States and which were packaged, 
labeled, and released for shipment prior to the effective date of the 
cancellation action. If the request for use termination is granted as 
discussed above, the Agency intends to issue a cancellation order that 
will allow the registrant to continue to sell and distribute existing 
stocks of products bearing old labeling for 18 months after the date of 
the use termination order. Persons other than the registrant are 
allowed to continue to sell and/or use existing stocks of products 
bearing old labeling until such stocks are exhausted, provided that 
such use is consistent with the terms of the previously approved 
labeling on, or that accompanied, the cancelled product. The order will 
specifically prohibit any use of existing stocks that is not consistent 
with such previously approved labeling. If, as the Agency currently 
intends, the final cancellation order contains the existing stocks 
provision just described, the order will be sent only to the affected 
registrants of the cancelled products. If the Agency determines that 
the final cancellation order should contain existing stocks provisions 
different than the ones just described, the Agency will publish the 
cancellation order in the Federal Register.

List of Subjects

    Environmental protection, Pesticides and pests.


    Dated: April 10, 2006.
Debra Edwards,
Director, Special Review and Reregistration Division, Office of 
Pesticide Programs.
[FR Doc. E6-5749 Filed 4-18-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-S