Docket Number: EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0577 

www .regulations. gov 

Diclofop-methyl 

Notice of Registration Review Case Closure 

Case Number 2160 

June 2015 

"chard P. Keigwm, Jr. 

irector, Pesticide Re-evaluation Division 

Date: ::S<..),s-c, \\ J GO\ S 

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INTRODUCTION 

This is the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA or the Agency) Registration 

Review Case Closure for diclofop-methyl (registration review docket EPA-HQ-OPP2014-0577). Diclofop-methyl is an herbicide which was previously registered for use on 

wheat, barley, and golf course turf, but for which all registrations have been canceled as 

discussed below. 

The Agency is implementing the registration review program pursuant to Section 

3(g) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and will review 

each registered pesticide every 15 years to determine whether it continues to meet the 

FIFRA standard for registration. Changes in science, public policy, and pesticide use 

practices occur over time. The registration review program is intended to make sure that, 

as the ability to assess risk evolves and as policies and practices change, all registered 

pesticides continue to meet the statutory standard. The public phase of registration review 

begins when the initial docket is opened for each case. Information on this program is 

provided on the Agency's website 1• 

Pursuant to 40 CFR 155.50, the Agency formally initiated registration review for 

diclofop-methyl (case 2160). The following timeline highlights significant events that 

have occurred during the registration review of diclofop-methyl: 

• September 24, 2014- Publication of the Diclofop-methyl Preliminary Work Plan, 

Scoping Document, and Problem Formulation Document in the registration 

review docket (EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0577) for a 60-day public comment period. 

• October 23, 2014- Bayer CropScience and Bayer Environmental Science, the 

technical and end-use product registrants, respectively, requested to voluntarily 

cancel all of their diclofop-methyl product registrations. These were the last three 

diclofop-methyl products registered for use in the United States. 

• February 11 , 2015- Published a Notice of Receipt of Requests to Voluntarily 

Cancel Certain Pesticide Registrations for Diclofop-methyl in the Federal 

Register (78 FR 53141; FRL-9396-4). No substantive comments were received 

during the 30-day comment period. 

• June 10, 2015- Published the Diclofop-methyl; Product Cancellation Order for 

Certain Pesticide Registrations in the Federal Register (80 FR 32949; FRL-9928-

03). 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION 

In October 2014, the technical and end-use product registrants, Bayer 

CropScience and Bayer Environmental Science informed the Agency that they were 

1 http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrdl/registration _review/ 

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requesting to voluntarily cancel all diclofop-methyl product registrations. Following 

publication of a Federal Register notice announcing receipt of those requests and the end 

of the public comment period, the Agency issued the product cancellation order on June 

10, 2015 for all diclofop-methyl product registrations. The effective cancellation date is 

January 1, 2018. (Copies of those notices are included in the docket for this registration 

review.) Existing stocks provisions included in the order allow the registrant to sell and 

distribute diclofop-methyl products (EPA Reg. Nos. 264-641 , 264-642, and 432-1231) 

until January 1, 2018. After that date, persons other than the registrant may continue to 

sell, distribute, and use diclofop-methyl products until exhausted, provided that such sale, 

distribution, and use is consistent with the terms of the previously approved labeling on, 

or that accompanied, the cancelled products. 

REGISTRATION REVIEW CASE CLOSURE 

As stated in the Preliminary Work Plan for diclofop-methyl, the Agency had 

intended to call in data and revise the existing risk assessments for diclofop-methyl. 

However, following publication of the PWP, all U.S. diclofop-methyl product 

registrations were voluntarily cancelled effective January 1, 2018. Therefore, due to the 

cancellation of all diclofop-methyl product registrations in the United States, updated risk 

assessments and additional data are no longer required and the Agency is closing the 

registration review case. 

The Agency does not expect the current risks associated with diclofop-methyl use 

to differ substantially from those identified during the diclofop-methyl reregistration 

process. In order to mitigate the risks identified in the Reregistration Eligibility Decision 

document (RED), the Agency specified mitigation measures in the RED, which are 

already in effect on diclofop-methyl product labels. The existing stocks sales and 

distribution deadlines included in the June 10, 2015 cancellation order ensure that 

diclofop-methyl sale, distribution, and use will decline and then cease entirely in the 

United States in the future. During this period, given the mitigation measures that are 

specified in the RED and are currently in place, the Agency believes that existing stocks 

of diclofop-methyl products may be used until depleted without causing unreasonable 

risk to human health and the environment. 

Pursuant to 40 CFR § 155.42(c), which provides that the Agency "will close a 

registration review case if all products in the case are canceled," the Agency is closing 

the registration review case for diclofop-methyl, thus concluding the diclofop-methyl 

registration review. 

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