[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: 40CFR155.30]



[Page 53-54]

 

                   TITLE 40--PROTECTION OF ENVIRONMENT

 

         CHAPTER I--ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED)

 

PART 155_REGISTRATION STANDARDS--Table of Contents

 

         Subpart B_Docketing and Public Participation Procedures

 

Sec.  155.30  Meetings and communications.



    EPA personnel may, upon their own initiative or upon request of any 

interested person or party, meet or communicate with persons or parties 

outside of government concerning a Registration Standard under 

development. Such meetings or communications will conform to the 

following policies and procedures:

    (a) Purpose. Meetings and communications may be for the purpose of 

receiving and considering information, exchanging views, exploring 

factual and substantive positions, discussing regulatory options or for 

any other purpose deemed appropriate by the Agency in its deliberations 

concerning development of a Registration Standard. The Agency will not 

commit to take any particular action concerning a Registration Standard 

under development during discussions with any person or party outside of 

government. The Agency will make its final administrative decision on a 

wholly independent basis, and in accordance with law.

    (b) Meetings with persons or parties outside of government. Requests 

by responsible persons or parties outside of government to meet with 

Agency personnel concerning a Registration Standard under development 

should be directed in writing to the Registration Division. Reasonable 

requests will ordinarily be granted on a timely basis. EPA will decide 

the time and place of such meetings, and the Agency personnel who will 

attend. EPA may decline to meet with persons or parties who assert 

unreasonable claims of confidential business information for the purpose 

of circumventing the docketing procedures in Sec.  155.32. EPA may also 

decline to meet if the number or frequency of meetings would delay 

unduly the issuance of the Registration Standard. Further, no person or 

party outside government will be accorded special or preferential access 

to Agency pesticide decisionmaking or to the Agency's decisional 

process.

    (c) Information submitted to the Agency concerning a Registration 

Standard under development. (1) Information, comments, data, or other 

written material submitted to the Agency at any time concerning a 

Registration Standard under development may be claimed by the submitter 

to be confidential business information. The burden of identifying 

claimed confidential business information rests with the submitter, or, 

in meetings, with the participants from outside of government who wish 

to assert a claim of confidentiality.

    (2) To assert a claim of confidentiality for all or any part of a 

written submission concerning a Registration Standard under development, 

the submitter must furnish three copies of the material. Two copies must 

be complete, with claimed confidential business information clearly 

marked in the text. Items in the document that are claimed confidential 

should be numbered consecutively throughout the document. The third copy 

must have the claimed confidential business information excised from the 

text without closing up or paraphrasing the remaining text. The 

deletions should be consecutively numbered to correspond to the 

numbering of the complete copies. Each copy must be marked on the cover 

as to whether it contains claimed confidential business information.



[[Page 54]]



    (3) Any written material received by the Agency that is not marked 

as confidential will be deemed to be nonconfidential, and may be made 

available through the public docket or otherwise disclosed without prior 

notice to the submitter.

    (d) Memorandum of meeting. For each meeting with a person or party 

outside of government, the Agency will prepare, based on notes taken at 

the meeting, a memorandum of the meeting. The memorandum will be 

prepared within 10 working days of the meeting and will include all of 

the following information:

    (1) The date and time of the meeting.

    (2) The name of the person who requested the meeting.

    (3) The names and affiliations of the participants.

    (4) The subject matter of the meeting.

    (5) A full and accurate description of all significant positions 

taken, facts presented, and arguments made by each participant (except 

that any discussion of claimed confidential business information will be 

identified in meeting notes, and referenced in the memorandum).

    (6) Identification of all documents, proposals, or other materials 

(other than information claimed to be confidential business information) 

distributed or exchanged at the meeting.

    (7) The name of the person who prepared the memorandum.



[50 FR 49001, Nov. 27, 1985, as amended at 58 FR 34203, June 23, 1993]