Environmental Protection Agency June 14, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This regulation establishes a temporary exemption from the requirement of a tolerance for residues of the microbial pesticide Bacillus mycoides isolate J on sugar beets when applied/used to control Cercospora Leaf Spot (Cercospora beticola) in sugar beets. Montana Microbial Products submitted a petition to EPA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA), requesting the temporary exemption from tolerance. This regulation eliminates the need to establish a maximum permissible level for residues of Bacillus mycoides isolate J. The temporary tolerance exemption will expire on December 31, 2007.

This notice announces the initial filing of pesticide petitions proposing the establishment of regulations for residues of pendimethalin in or on onion, green; leek; onion, welsh; shallot, fresh leaves; and strawberry.

This notice announces the initial filing of pesticide petitions proposing the establishment of regulations for residues of pendimethalin in or on fruiting vegetable group, pome fruit group, apple pomace, juneberry, stone fruit group, and pomegranate.

This document notifies the public that the Administrator of EPA has forwarded to the Secretary of Agriculture a draft final rule as required by section 25(a) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). As described in the Agency's semi-annual Regulatory Agenda, the draft final rule will establish procedures to implement section 3(g) of FIFRA which provides for periodic review of pesticide registrations. The goal of these regulations, which are required by FIFRA section 3(g), is to review a pesticide's registration every 15 years. The regulations will address the following procedural aspects of the program: establishing pesticide cases for registration review; establishing schedules; assembling information to be considered during the review; deciding on the scope and depth of the review; calling in data under FIFRA section 3(c)(2)(B) that are needed to conduct the review; reviewing data and conducting risk assessments or benefit analyses, as needed; deciding whether a pesticide continues to meet the standard of registration in FIFRA; and public participation in the registration review process. If a pesticide does not meet the FIFRA standard, and cancellation is determined to be needed, the Agency will follow cancellation procedures in section 6 of FIFRA. This program will begin after the completion of tolerance reassessment in 2006 and before the completion of reregistration in 2008. Each pesticide will be reviewed every 15 years to assure that the it continues to meet the FIFRA standard for registration, including compliance with any new legislation, regulations or science policy.

This regulation establishes an exemption from the requirement of a tolerance for residues of potassium silicate in or on all food commodities when applied/used as a fungicide, insecticide or miticide so long as the potassium silicate is not applied at rates exceeding 1% by weight in aqueous solution and when used in accordance with good agricultural practices. PQ Corporation submitted a petition to EPA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA), requesting an exemption from the requirement of a tolerance. This regulation eliminates the need to establish a maximum permissible level for residues of potassium silicate.

Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, EPA gives notice of a meeting of the Good Neighbor Environmental Board. The Board meets three times each calendar year at different locations along the U.S.-Mexico border and in Washington, DC. It was created by the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative Act of 1992. An Executive Order delegates implementing authority to the Administrator of EPA. The Board is responsible for providing advice to the President and the Congress on environmental and infrastructure issues and needs within the States contiguous to Mexico in order to improve the quality of life of persons residing on the United States side of the border. The statute calls for the Board to have representatives from U.S. Government agencies; the governments of the States of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas; and private organizations with expertise on environmental and infrastructure problems along the southwest border. The purpose of the meeting is to hold a public comment session and also to hear presentations from local experts on the topic of its next report to the President: ``Environmental Protection and Border Security on the U.S. Border with Mexico.'' A copy of the meeting agenda will be posted at https://www.epa.gov/ocem/gneb.

EPA proposes to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to establish and require reasonably available control technology (RACT) for twelve major sources of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOX). In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the Commonwealth's SIP submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.

In 1994, EPA promulgated National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for the synthetic organic chemical manufacturing industry (SOCMI). This rule is commonly known as the hazardous organic NESHAP (HON) and established maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards to regulate the emissions of organic hazardous air pollutants (HAP) from production processes that are located at major sources. The Clean Air Act (CAA) directs EPA to assess the risk remaining (residual risk) after the application of the MACT standards and to promulgate additional standards if required to provide an ample margin of safety to protect public health or prevent adverse environmental effect. The CAA also requires us to review and revise MACT standards, as necessary, every eight years, taking into account developments in practices, processes, and control technologies that have occurred during that time. Based on our findings from the residual risk and technology review, we are proposing two options (to be considered with equal weight) for emissions standards for new and existing SOCMI process units. The first proposed option would impose no further controls, proposing to find that the existing standards protect public health with an ample margin of safety and prevent adverse environmental impacts, as required by section 112(f)(2) of the CAA and would satisfy the requirements of section 112(d)(6). The second proposed option would provide further reductions of organic HAP at certain process units by applying additional controls for equipment leaks and by controlling some storage vessels and process vents that are uncontrolled under the current rule. This option would also protect public health with an ample margin of safety and prevent adverse environmental impacts, as required by section 112(f)(2) of the CAA and would satisfy the requirements of section 112(d)(6). Under this option, we are proposing that the compliance deadlines for additional promulgated requirements would be one to three years from the date of promulgation.