Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to OMB; Comment Request; EPA ICR No. 2147.02; OMB Control No. 2070-0167; Pesticide Registration Fee Waivers

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that the following Information Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval: Pesticide Registration Fee Waivers; EPA ICR Number: 2147.02; OMB Control Number: 2070-0167. The ICR, which is abstracted below, describes the nature of the information collection activity and its expected burden and costs.

DATES:

Additional comments may be submitted on or before October 18, 2004.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Nathanael Martin, Field and External Affairs Division (7506C), Office of Pesticide Programs, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (703) 305-6475; fax number: (703) 305-5884; e-mail address: martin.nathanael@epa.gov.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number OPP-2004-0092, to (1) EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by e-mail to opp-docket@epa.gov, or by mail to: Public Information and Records Integrity Branch (PIRIB), Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP), Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 7502C, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC, 20460, and (2) OMB at: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Attention: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

EPA has submitted the following ICR to OMB for review and approval according to the procedures prescribed in 5 CFR 1320.12. The Federal Register document, required under 5 CFR 1320.8(d), soliciting comments on this collection of information was published on March 25, 2003 (69 FR 15322). EPA received no comments on this ICR during the 60-day comment period.

EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID No. OPP-2004-0092, which is available for public viewing at the Public Information and Records Integrity Branch (PIRIB), Rm. 119, Crystal Mall #2, 1801 S. Bell Street, Arlington, VA. This docket facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The docket telephone number is (703) 305-5805. An electronic version of the public docket is available through EPA Dockets (EDOCKET) at http://www.epa.gov/edocket. Use EDOCKET to submit or view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the public docket, and to access those documents in the public docket that are available electronically. Once in the system, select “search,” then key in the docket ID number identified above.

Any comments related to this ICR should be submitted to EPA and OMB within 30 days of this notice. Please note, EPA's policy is that public comments, whether submitted electronically or in paper, will be made available for public viewing in EDOCKET as EPA receives them and without change, unless the comment contains copyrighted material, CBI, or other information whose public disclosure is restricted by statute. When EPA identifies a comment containing copyrighted material, EPA will provide a reference to that material in the version of the comment that is placed in EDOCKET. The entire printed comment, including the copyrighted material, will be available in the public docket. Although identified as an item in the official docket, information claimed as CBI, or whose disclosure is otherwise restricted by statute, is not included in the official public docket, and will not be available for public viewing in EDOCKET. For further information about the electronic docket, see EPA's Federal Register notice describing the electronic docket at 67 FR 38102 (May 31, 2002), or go to http://www.epa.gov/edocket.

ICR Title: Pesticide Registration Fee Waivers.

ICR Status: This is a request for extension of an existing approved collection that is currently scheduled to expire on September 30, 2004. EPA is asking OMB to approve this ICR for three years. Under OMB regulations at 5 CFR 1320.10(e)(2), the Agency may continue to conduct or sponsor the collection of information while the submission is pending at OMB.

Abstract: This information collection will allow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to process requests for waivers of fees under the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2003 (PRIA). The ICR covers the collection activities associated with requesting a fee waiver and involves requesters submitting a waiver request, information to demonstrate eligibility for the waiver, and certification of eligibility. Waivers are available for small businesses, for minor uses, and for actions solely associated with the Inter-Regional Research Project Number 4 (IR-4). State and federal agencies are exempt from the payment of fees. This ICR provides burden hour and labor cost estimates for both applicants for fee waivers and EPA employees who process and approve or deny waiver requests. Responses to this information collection activity are required only to obtain or retain a benefit (i.e., a reduction or waiver of fees).

Burden Statement: The annual public reporting and recordkeeping burden for this collection of information is estimated to average about 30 hours per response. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act, “burden” means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. For this collection it includes the time needed to read the new regulation, review instructions, plan activities, assemble pertinent materials, and transmit or otherwise disclose the information. The agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control number for this information collection appears at the beginning and the end of this document.

The following is a summary of the burden estimates taken from the ICR:

Respondents/affected entities: Pesticide registrants.

Estimated total number of potential respondents: 1,565.

Frequency of response: On occasion.

Estimated total/average number of responses for each respondent: 1.

Estimated total annual burden hours: 10,670.

Estimated total annual labor costs: $899,360.

Changes in the ICR Since the Last Approval: The total estimated annual respondent burden for this ICR has decreased 10,930 hours (from 21,600 to 10,670), due mainly to an adjustment of the burden hour estimates resulting from the Agency's consultation efforts. Estimated costs have decreased almost $980,000 (from $1,879,200 to $899,360) for the same reason. These decreases are explained more fully in the ICR.