Environmental Protection Agency May 3, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office is soliciting nominations for consideration of membership on EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), the Advisory Council on Clean Air Compliance Analysis (Council), the chartered Science Advisory Board (SAB or Board), and SAB Standing Committees.

This notice announces EPA's order for the cancellations voluntarily requested by the registrant and accepted by the Agency, of products containing the pesticide amitraz, pursuant to section 6(f)(1) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), as amended. This cancellation order follows a March 17, 2004 Federal Register Notice of Receipt of Requests from the amitraz registrant to voluntarily cancel all uses of its Ovasyn Insecticide/Miticide and Mitac W Insecticide product registrations. These are not the last amitraz products registered for use in the United States, but are the last amitraz products for the use sites of cotton and pears. In the March 17, 2004 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 registrant withdrew its requests within this period. The Agency received no comments regarding the cancellation of Ovasyn Insecticide/Miticide and Mitac W Insecticide. Further, the registrant did not withdraw its requests. Accordingly, EPA hereby issues in this notice a cancellation order granting the requested cancellations. Any distribution, sale, or use of the amitraz products subject to this cancellation order is permitted only in accordance with the terms of this order, including any existing stocks provisions.

This notice announces the initial filing of pesticide petitions proposing the establishment of regulations for the residues of bifenazate (1-methylethyl 2-(4-methoxy [1,1'-biphenyl]-3- yl)hydrazinecarboxylate) and diazinecarboxylic acid, 2-(4-methoxy- [1,1'-biphenyl]-3-yl), 1-methylethyl ester (expressed as bifenazate) in or on fruit , stone (Group 12); pea (garden and edible podded); and vegetable, tuberous and corm (Subgroup 1C); and .proposes to amend 40 CFR 180.572 by deleting the existing peach and nectarine tolerances since they are included in the fruit, stone (Group 12) tolerance.

This notice announces that pesticide related information submitted to EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), including information that may have been claimed as Confidential Business Information (CBI) by the submitter, will be tranferred to Geologics in accordance with 40 CFR 2.307(h)(3) and 2.308(i)(2). Geologics has been awarded multiple contracts to perform work for OPP, and access to this information will enable Geologics to fulfill the obligations of the contract.

This regulation establishes tolerances for indirect or inadvertent residues of glufosinate ammonium and its metabolite in or on raw agricultural commodities. Bayer CropScience requested this tolerance under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA).

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of fomesafen in or on dry bean, snap bean and cotton. Interregional Research Project No. 4 (IR-4), and Syngenta Crop Protection requested this tolerance under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA).

This regulation increases the tolerance for residues of boscalid, 3-pyridinecarboxamide, 2-chloro-N-(4'-chloro [1,1'-biphenyl]- 2-yl) in or on strawberry; and decreases indirect or inadvertant tolerances on beet, garden, roots; beet, sugar, roots; radish, roots; turnip, roots; and vegetable, root and tuber, leaves, Group 2. BASF requested these revised tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996.

This document proposes under section 408(e)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to revoke the existing exemptions from the requirement of a tolerance for residues of certain inert ingredients because there are insufficient data to make the determination of safety required by FFDCA section 408(b)(2), or because they are redundant and, therefore, are not necessary. In addition, EPA has identified substances within certain of these tolerance exemptions that meet the definition of low-risk polymers and is proposing to establish new tolerance exemptions for them. The revocation actions proposed in this document contribute towards the Agency's tolerance reassessment requirements under FFDCA section 408(q), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996. By law, EPA is required by August 2006 to reassess the tolerances that were in existence on August 2, 1996. The regulatory actions proposed in this document pertain to the proposed revocation of 129 tolerance exemptions which would be counted as tolerance reassessment toward the August 2006 review deadline.