Pesticide Maintenance Fee: Product Cancellation Order for Certain Pesticide Registrations

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

This notice announces EPA's order for the cancellations, voluntarily requested by the registrants and accepted by the Agency, of the products listed in Table 1 of Unit III., pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

DATES:

The cancellations are effective March 14, 2019.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michael Yanchulis, Information Technology and Resources Management Division (7502P), Office of Pesticide Programs, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number: (703) 347-0237; email address: yanchulis.michael@epa.gov.

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.

B. How can I get copies of this document and other related information?

The docket for this action, identified by docket identification (ID) number EPA-HQ-OPP-2018-0657, is available at http://www.regulations.gov or at the Office of Pesticide Programs Regulatory Public Docket (OPP Docket) in the Environmental Protection Agency Docket Center (EPA/DC), West William Jefferson Clinton Bldg., Rm. 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001. The Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the OPP Docket is (703) 305-5805. Please review the visitor instructions and additional information about the docket available at http://www.epa.gov/dockets.

II. Background

This cancellation order follows an October 19, 2018 Federal Register Notice of Receipt of Requests from the registrants listed in Table 2 of Unit III. to voluntarily cancel these product registrations. In the October 19, 2018 notice, EPA indicated that it would issue an order implementing the cancellations, unless the Agency received substantive comments within the 30-day comment period that would merit its further review of these requests, or unless the registrants withdrew their requests. The Agency received two comments on the October 19, 2018 notice. One comment was general in nature and did not merit further review. The other comment was a request from Loveland Products, Inc. to withdraw one cancellation request for registration number WA900005 which now will be retained. The registration numbers below were listed in the October 19, 2018 notice but were listed in another request to cancel Federal Register notice so are not listed in this notice. The products and Federal Register notice are: Federal Register of August 10, 2018 (83 FR 39746; FRL-9980-44): 100-1065, 100-1174, 100-1181, 100-1257, OR040004, OR040005, OR990039, OR990040 and VA110002. Accordingly, EPA hereby issues in this notice a cancellation order granting the requested cancellations. Any distribution, sale, or use of the products subject to this cancellation order is permitted only in accordance with the terms of this order, including any existing stocks provisions.

Section 4(i)(5) of FIFRA (7 U.S.C. 136a-1(i)(5)) 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 FIFRA section 3 (7 U.S.C. 136a) as well as those granted under FIFRA section 24(c) (7 U.S.C. 136v(c)) to meet special local needs. Registrations for which the fee is not paid are subject to cancellation by order and without a hearing.

Under FIFRA, the EPA Administrator may reduce or waive maintenance fees for minor agricultural use pesticides when it is determined that the fee would be likely to cause significant impact on the availability of the pesticide for the use.

In fiscal year 2018, maintenance fees were collected in one billing cycle. In late November of 2017, all holders of either FIFRA section 3 registrations or FIFRA 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, 2018. A notice of intent to cancel was sent in May of 2017 to companies who did not respond and to companies who responded but paid for less than all their registrations. Since mailing the notices of intent to cancel, EPA has maintained a toll-free inquiry number through which the questions of affected registrants have been answered.

In fiscal year 2018, the Agency has waived the fee for 336 minor agricultural use registrations at the request of the registrants. Maintenance fees have been paid for about 16,519 FIFRA section 3 registrations, or about 97% of the registrations on file in October 2017. Fees have been paid for about 1,838 FIFRA section 24(c) registrations, or about 86% of the total on file in October 2017. Cancellations for non-payment of the maintenance fee affect 135 FIFRA section 3 registrations and 7 FIFRA section 24(c) registrations. These cancellations can be found in Table 3 of Unit III. Cancellations for companies paying the fee at one of the capped payment amounts are considered voluntary cancellations since the registration could be maintained without an additional fee payment. These cancellations are subject to a 30-day comment period and are listed in Table 1 of Unit III.

The cancellation orders generally permit registrants to continue to sell and distribute existing stocks of the canceled products until January 15, 2019, 1-year after the date on which the fee was due. 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 United States and which have been packaged, labeled, and released for shipment prior to the effective date of the cancellation 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.

III. What action is the Agency taking?

This notice announces the cancellation, as requested by registrant, of products registered under FIFRA section 3 (7 U.S.C. 136a). These registrations are listed in sequence by registration number in Table 1 of this unit.

Table 2 of this unit includes the names and addresses of record for all registrants of the products in Table 1 of this unit, in sequence by EPA company number. This number corresponds to the first part of the EPA registration numbers of the products listed in Table 1 of this unit.

Table 3 of this unit lists all of the FIFRA section 3 and section 24(c) registrations which were canceled for non-payment of the 2018 maintenance fee. These registrations have been canceled by order on September 14, 2018 and without hearing.

IV. Summary of Public Comments Received and Agency Response to Comments

During the public comment period provided, EPA received two comments were received in response to the October 19, 2018 Federal Register notice announcing the Agency's receipt of the requests for voluntary cancellations of products listed in Table 1 of Unit III. One comment was general in nature did not merit further review. The other comment was from Loveland Products, Inc. requesting that EPA Reg. No. WA900005 be retained because the voluntary cancellation request was made in error. As a result of this comment, the Agency is retaining the registration of EPA Reg. No. WA900005.

V. Cancellation Order

Pursuant to FIFRA section 6(f) (7 U.S.C. 136d(f)), EPA hereby approves the requested cancellations of the registrations identified in Table 1 of Unit III. Accordingly, the Agency hereby orders that the product registrations identified in Table 1 of Unit III. are canceled. The effective date of the cancellations that are the subject of this notice is March 14, 2019. Any distribution, sale, or use of existing stocks of the products identified in Table 1 of Unit III. in a manner inconsistent with any of the provisions for disposition of existing stocks set forth in Unit VII. will be a violation of FIFRA.

VI. What is the Agency's authority for taking this action?

Section 6(f)(1) of FIFRA (7 U.S.C. 136d(f)(1)) 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. Thereafter, following the public comment period, the EPA Administrator may approve such a request. The notice of receipt for this action was published for comment in the Federal Register of October 19, 2018 (83 FR 53054) (FRL-9983-98). The comment period closed on November 19, 2018.

VII. 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. The existing stocks provisions for the products subject to this order are as follows.

The registrants may continue to sell and distribute existing stocks of products listed in Table 1 of Unit II. until January 15, 2019 or the date of publication of this Federal Register notice, whichever is later. Thereafter, the registrants are prohibited from selling or distributing products listed in Table 1, except for export in accordance with FIFRA section 17 (7 U.S.C. 136o), or proper disposal. Persons other than the registrants may sell, distribute, or use existing stocks of products listed in Table 1 of Unit III. until existing stocks are exhausted, provided that such sale, distribution, or use is consistent with the terms of the previously approved labeling on, or that accompanied, the canceled products.

Authority:7 U.S.C. 136 et seq.