[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 40, Volume 23]

[Revised as of July 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 40CFR154.27]



[Page 49-50]

 

                   TITLE 40--PROTECTION OF ENVIRONMENT

 

         CHAPTER I--ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED)

 

PART 154_SPECIAL REVIEW PROCEDURES--Table of Contents

 

                          Subpart B_Procedures

 

Sec.  154.27  Meetings with interested persons.



    (a) In the Special Review process, to assure openness and 

responsiveness, no person or party outside of government will be 

afforded special or preferential access to Agency Special Review 

decisionmakers or to the Agency's Special Review process. At the same 

time, however, Agency personnel are free to meet and otherwise 

communicate with persons or parties outside of government, including 

registrants and manufacturers, users, trade unions, environmental groups 

and other interested persons, to obtain information, exchange views, 

explore factual and substantive positions, or discuss regulatory options 

concerning Special Review decisions.

    (b) Meetings between EPA and any person or party outside of 

government will not result in undue delay in reaching Special Review 

decisions. During such meetings, the Agency will not commit to take any 

particular action concerning a pending decision. The Agency may receive 

and consider information and recommendations from persons or parties 

outside of government; however, the Agency will make the final 

administrative decision on a wholly independent basis and in accordance 

with law.

    (c) Any interested person may ask to meet with Agency officials to 

discuss factual information available to the Agency, to present any 

factual information, to respond to presentations by other persons, or to 

discuss what regulatory actions should be taken regarding a pesticide 

which is or may be the subject of a Special Review. If, at its 

discretion, the Agency holds such meetings with any person outside of 

government concerning a use of a pesticide product, the Agency will 

prepare and file in the docket a memorandum of such meeting, meeting the 

requirements specified in Sec.  154.15(b)(7).

    (d) Meetings described in this section may include meetings held 

after issuance of a Notice of Special Review with any registrant who 

proposes to change voluntarily the composition, packaging, and labeling, 

or other terms and conditions of registration of his pesticide product 

in a way which he believes would reduce the risks of use of the product 

so that it would no longer meet or exceed the risk criteria of Sec.  

154.7. Meetings for this purpose will be most helpful and productive for 

both registrants and the Agency if they are requested by registrants 

shortly after the issuance of the Notice of Special Review.



[[Page 50]]



    (e) If the Agency meets with any person or party outside of 

government concerning a pending Special Review decision, the Agency will 

not issue a final Special Review decision until 30 days after inclusion 

of a memorandum concerning that meeting in the public docket. During 

those 30 days, any person or party may submit written comments to the 

Agency regarding the subject matter of the meeting in question. The 

Agency may issue a final Special Review decision without allowing this 

30-day period if expedited action is necessary to protect public health 

or the environment, or if the Agency has invited other parties with 

potentially opposing viewpoints to the meeting in question (e.g., 

registrants, users, labor, and environmental groups).

    (f) The Agency may decline to meet subsequently with any person or 

party who asserts unreasonable confidential business information claims 

pursuant to Sec.  154.15(c) for the purpose of circumventing the 

docketing procedures described in Sec.  154.15(b).