[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 57 (Friday, March 23, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17052-17055]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-7078]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0231; FRL-9342-6]


Metaldehyde; Notice of Receipt of Request To Voluntarily Amend a 
Registration To Terminate Certain Uses

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 a request by the registrant to voluntarily amend 
its metaldehyde product registration to terminate or delete one or more 
uses. The request would delete metaldehyde use in or on all but the 
following sites: Artichokes, blueberries, caneberries (bingleberry, 
black raspberry, blackberry, boysenberry, dewberry, lowberry, 
marionberry, olallieberry, red raspberry, youngberry) and other berries 
(currant, elderberry, gooseberry, huckleberry, loganberry, lingonberry, 
juneberry, salal), citrus, lettuce, cole crops and other leafy greens 
(broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cavalo, broccolo, 
collards, kale, kohlrabi, mizuna, mustard greens, mustard spinach, rape 
greens), grass grown for seed, ornamentals, prickly pear cactus, 
tomato, strawberry, watercress, and use sites with directions for use 
in state and/or Federal invasive mollusk eradication operations. The 
request would not terminate the last metaldehyde product registered for 
use in the United States. EPA intends to grant this request 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 request, or unless the registrant 
withdraws its request. If this request is granted, any sale, 
distribution, or use of products listed in this notice will be 
permitted after the uses are terminated

[[Page 17053]]

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 September 19, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by docket identification 
(ID) number EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0231, by one of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) Regulatory Public 
Docket (7502P), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania 
Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001.
     Delivery: OPP Regulatory Public Docket (7502P), 
Environmental Protection Agency, Rm. S-4400, One Potomac Yard (South 
Bldg.), 2777 S. Crystal Dr., Arlington, VA. Deliveries are only 
accepted during the Docket Facility'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 Facility telephone number is (703) 305-5805.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPP-
2005-0231. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the docket without change and may be made available online 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 email. The 
regulations.gov Web site 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 email comment 
directly to EPA without going through regulations.gov, your email 
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 
available at http://www.regulations.gov. 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 either in the electronic 
docket at http://www.regulations.gov, or, if only available in hard 
copy, at the OPP Regulatory Public Docket in Rm. S-4400, One Potomac 
Yard (South Bldg.), 2777 S. Crystal Dr., Arlington, VA. The hours of 
operation of this Docket Facility are from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The Docket Facility telephone 
number is (703) 305-5805.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jill Bloom, Pesticide Re-evaluation 
Division (7508P), Office of Pesticide Programs, Environmental 
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460-
0001; telephone number: (703) 308-8019; fax number: (703) 308-7070; 
email 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 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 email. 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 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 the Request To Amend the Registration 
To Terminate Uses

    This notice announces receipt by EPA of a request from Lonza, Inc., 
to amend its metaldehyde product registration to terminate certain 
uses. Metaladehyde is a molluscide used to kill snail and slug pests of 
various food, seed, and ornamental plants. Lonza holds the sole 
registration for a metaldehyde manufacturing-use product. The Agency 
determined in 2006 that some uses of metaldehyde were not eligible for 
reregistration. In correspondence dated February 23, 2012, Lonza 
requested that EPA amend the registration of its metaldehyde 
manufacturing-use product to terminate certain uses. The subject 
pesticide product registration is identified in Table 1 of Unit III. 
Because the current metaldehyde manufacturing-use product label lists 
only broad categories of permitted use sites (e.g., terrestrial food 
crops, outdoor noncommercial homeowner uses), it is not feasible to 
reference specific use sites that will be deleted. The request by Lonza 
is for an amendment that

[[Page 17054]]

terminates all uses except a subset that has been determined to be 
eligible for reregistration. The excepted uses are artichokes, 
blueberries, caneberries (bingleberry, black raspberry, blackberry, 
boysenberry, dewberry, lowberry, marionberry, olallieberry, red 
raspberry, youngberry) and other berries (currant, elderberry, 
gooseberry, huckleberry, loganberry, lingonberry, juneberry, salal), 
citrus, lettuce, cole crops and other leafy greens (broccoli, Brussels 
sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cavalo, broccolo, collards, kale, 
kohlrabi, mizuna, mustard greens, mustard spinach, rape greens), grass 
grown for seed, ornamentals, prickly pear cactus, tomato, strawberry, 
watercress, and use sites with directions for use in state and/or 
Federal invasive mollusk eradication operations. Lonza has requested 
that it be allowed to sell existing stocks of its product as currently 
labeled for 18 months after the use terminations become effective, and 
that other registrants be permitted to use existing stocks until those 
stocks are exhausted. The registrant's request will not terminate the 
last metaldehyde products registered in the United States. Other 
registrants who formulate Lonza's metaldehyde manufacturing-use product 
into end-use products have submitted new labels that conform to the 
Reregistration Eligibility Decision. Coupled with the actions of the 
formulators, the request by Lonza would terminate the last metaldehyde 
pesticide products registered in the United States for all but the 
specific uses cited in this notice.

III. What action is the agency taking?

    This notice announces receipt by EPA of a request from a registrant 
to amend its metaldehyde product registration to terminate certain 
uses. The affected product and the registrant making the request are 
identified in Tables 1 and 2 of this unit.
    Unless the request is withdrawn by the registrant or the Agency 
determines that there are substantive comments that warrant further 
review of this request, EPA intends to issue an order amending the 
affected registration.

Table 1--Metaldehyde Product Registration Subject to the Pending Request
                              for Amendment
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      Registration No.            Product name             Company
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6836-107....................  Lonza Meta            Lonza, Inc.
                               Metaldehyde
                               Technical
                               Molluscicide.
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    Table 2 of this unit shows the name and address of record for the 
registrant of the product listed in Table 1 of this unit.

           Table 2--Registrant Requesting Voluntary Amendment
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            EPA company No.                  Company name and address
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6836...................................  Lonza, Inc., 90 Boroline Road,
                                          Allendale, NJ 07401
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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 acting on the request, EPA must publish a notice 
of receipt of any such request in the Federal Register.
    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, FIFRA section 6(f)(1)(C) 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 EPA Administrator determines that continued use of the 
pesticide would pose an unreasonable adverse effect on the environment.
    The metaldehyde registrant has not requested that EPA waive the 
180-day comment period. Accordingly, EPA will provide a 180-day comment 
period on the request.

V. Procedures for Withdrawal of Requests

    Registrants who choose to withdraw a request for product 
cancellation or use deletion should submit the withdrawal in writing to 
the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. 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 
that are currently in the United States and that were packaged, 
labeled, and released for shipment prior to the effective date of the 
action. If the request for the amendment to terminate uses is granted, 
the Agency intends to publish the use termination order in the Federal 
Register.
    In any order issued in response to this request for an amendment to 
terminate uses, EPA proposes to include the following provisions for 
the treatment of any existing stocks of the product listed in Table 1 
of Unit III.
    Once EPA has approved the product label reflecting the requested 
amendments to terminate uses, the registrant will be permitted to sell 
or distribute the product under the previously approved labeling for a 
period of 18 months after the date of Federal Register publication of 
the use termination order, unless other restrictions have been imposed. 
Thereafter, the registrant will be prohibited from selling or 
distributing the product identified in Table 1 of Unit III. with labels 
which include the deleted uses, except for export consistent with FIFRA 
section 17 or for proper disposal.
    Persons other than the registrant may sell, distribute, or use 
existing stocks of the product with labels which include the deleted 
uses until supplies are exhausted, provided that such sale, 
distribution, or use is consistent with the terms of the previously 
approved labeling on, or that accompanied, the deleted uses.

List of Subjects

    Environmental protection, Pesticides and pests.


[[Page 17055]]


    Dated: March 15, 2012.
Richard P. Keigwin, Jr.,
Director, Pesticide Re-evaluation Division, Office of Pesticide 
Programs.
[FR Doc. 2012-7078 Filed 3-22-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P