Pesticide Tolerances; Implementing Registration Review Decisions for Certain Pesticides; Atrazine, et al.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 180</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-HQ-OPP-2025-0266; FRL-12991-01-OCSPP]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2070-ZA16</RIN> <SUBJECT>Pesticide Tolerances; Implementing Registration Review Decisions for Certain Pesticides; Atrazine, et al.</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) is proposing to implement several tolerance actions under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) that the Agency determined were necessary or appropriate during the registration review conducted under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). During registration review, EPA reviews all aspects of a pesticide case, including existing tolerances, to ensure that the pesticide continues to meet the standard for registration under FIFRA. The pesticide tolerances and active ingredients addressed in this rulemaking are identified and discussed in detail in Unit III. of this document. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before February 9, 2026. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by docket identification (ID) number EPA-HQ-OPP-2025-0266, through <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Additional instructions on commenting or visiting the docket, along with more information about dockets generally, is available at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Alex McKee, Pesticide Re-Evaluation Division (7508M), Office of Pesticide Programs, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number: (202) 566-1939; email address: <E T="03">mckee.alex@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Does this action apply to me?</HD> You may be potentially affected by this action if you are an agricultural producer, food manufacturer, or pesticide manufacturer. The following list of North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather provides a guide to help readers determine whether this document might apply to them: • Crop production (NAICS code 111). • Animal production (NAICS code 112). • Food manufacturing (NAICS code 311). • Pesticide manufacturing (NAICS code 32532). If you have any questions regarding the applicability of this proposed action to a particular entity, consult the person listed under <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> . <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. What action is the Agency taking?</HD> EPA is proposing several tolerance actions that the Agency previously determined were necessary or appropriate during registration review of the pesticide active ingredients identified in Unit III. The tolerance actions for each pesticide active ingredient are described in Unit III. and may include but are not limited to the following types of actions: • Revising tolerance expressions; • Modifying commodity definitions; • Updating crop groupings; • Removing expired tolerances; • Revoking tolerances that are no longer needed; and • Harmonizing tolerances with the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs). Although it may not have been identified in the registration review of a particular pesticide, this proposed rule reflects the Agency's 2019 adoption of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Rounding Class Practice. More information on the OECD Rounding Class Practice can be found at <E T="03">https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/mrl-calculator-users-guide-and-white-paper_9789264221567-en.html.</E> Where applicable, these adjustments are proposed for specific pesticides as indicated in Unit III. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. What is EPA's authority for taking this action?</HD> Section 408(e) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), 21 U.S.C. 346a(e), authorizes EPA to establish, modify, or revoke tolerances or exemptions from the requirement of a tolerance on its own initiative. Under FIFRA section 3(g), 7 U.S.C. 136a(g), EPA is required to periodically review all registered pesticides and determine if those pesticides continue to meet the standard for registration under FIFRA. As part of the registration review of a pesticide, EPA also evaluates the existing tolerances and any tolerance changes identified as necessary or appropriate during registration review of a pesticide are summarized in the registration review decision documents for each pesticide active ingredient or registration review case ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> in the Proposed Interim Decision (PID), Proposed Final Decision (PFD), Interim Decision (ID) and Final Decision (FD)). These documents can be found in the public docket opened for each pesticide undergoing registration review. Additional information about pesticide registration review is available at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-reevaluation.</E> Prior to issuing the final regulation, FFDCA section 408(e)(2) requires EPA to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking for a 60-day public comment period, unless the Administrator for good cause finds that it would be in the public interest to have a shorter period and states the reasons in the proposed rulemaking. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for EPA?</HD> 1. <E T="03">Submitting CBI.</E> Do not submit CBI to EPA through email or <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> If you wish to include CBI in your comment, please follow the applicable instructions at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets#rules</E> and clearly mark the information that you claim to be CBI. Information so marked will not be disclosed except in accordance with procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2. 2. <E T="03">Tips for preparing your comments.</E> When preparing and submitting your comments, see the commenting tips at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD2">E. What can I do if I want the Agency to maintain a tolerance that the Agency proposes to revoke?</HD> This proposed rule provides a 60-day public comment period that allows any person to state an interest in retaining a tolerance proposed for revocation. If EPA receives such a comment within the 60-day period, EPA will not proceed to revoke the tolerance immediately. However, EPA will take steps to ensure the submission of any needed supporting data and will issue an order in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> under FFDCA section 408(f), if needed. If the data are not submitted as required in the order, EPA will take appropriate action under FFDCA. After considering comments that are received in response to this proposed rule, EPA will issue a final rule. At the time of the final rule, you may file an objection or request a hearing on the action taken in the final rule. If you fail to file an objection to the final rule within the time period specified in the final rule, you will have waived the right to raise any issues resolved in the final rule. After the filing deadline specified in the final rule, issues resolved in the final rule cannot be raised again in any subsequent proceedings. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. What is a tolerance?</HD> A “tolerance” represents the maximum level for residues of a pesticide chemical legally allowed in or on food, which includes raw agricultural commodities and processed foods and feed for animals. Under the FFDCA, residues of a pesticide chemical that are not covered by a tolerance or exemption from the requirement of a tolerance are considered unsafe. <E T="03">See</E> 21 U.S.C. 346a(a)(1). Foods containing unsafe residues are deemed adulterated and may not be distributed in interstate commerce. <E T="03">See</E> 21 U.S.C. 331(a) and 342(a)(2)(B). Consequently, for a food-use pesticide ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> a pesticide use that is likely to result in residues in or on food) to be sold and distributed in the United States, the pesticide must not only have appropriate tolerances or exemptions under the FFDCA, but also must be registered under FIFRA. Food-use pesticides not registered in the United States must have tolerances or exemptions in order for commodities treated with those pesticides to be imported into the United States. For additional information about tolerances, go to <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-tolerances/about-pesticide-tolerances.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Why does EPA consider international residue limits?</HD> When establishing a tolerance for residues of a pesticide, EPA must determine whether Codex has established a MRL for that pesticide. <E T="03">See</E> 21 U.S.C. 346a(b)(4). Additionally, as part the registration review of a pesticide ( <E T="03">see</E> Unit II.C.), EPA determines whether Codex or other international MRLs exist for commodities and chemicals for which U.S. tolerances have been established. Where appropriate, EPA's intention is to harmonize U.S. tolerances with those international MRLs to facilitate trade. EPA's effort to harmonize with international MRLs is summarized in the tolerance reassessment section of the individual Human Health Draft Risk Assessments that support the pesticide registration review. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. What is registration review?</HD> Under FIFRA section 3(g), 7 U.S.C. 136a(g), EPA is requir ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 101k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━