Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 109 / Tuesday, June 6, 2000 / Notices 35929

period, and other information related to

this action, including any information

claimed as confidential business

information (CBI). This official record

includes the documents that are

physically located in the docket, as well

as the documents that are referenced in

those documents. The public version of

the official record does not include any

information claimed as CBI. The public

version of the official record, which

includes printed, paper versions of any

electronic comments submitted during

an applicable comment period, is

available for inspection in the Public

Information and Records Integrity

Branch (PIRIB), Rm. 119, Crystal Mall

#2, 1921 Jefferson Davis Hwy.,

Arlington, VA, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.,

Monday through Friday, excluding legal

holidays. The PIRIB telephone number

is (703) 305–5805.

C. How and to Whom Do I Submit

Comments?

You may submit comments through

the mail, in person, or electronically. To

ensure proper receipt by EPA, it is

imperative that you identify docket

control number OPP–30493 in the

subject line on the first page of your

response.

1. By mail. Submit your comments to:

Public Information and Records

Integrity Branch (PIRIB), Information

Resources and Services Division

(7502C), Office of Pesticide Programs

(OPP), Environmental Protection

Agency, Ariel Rios Bldg., 1200

Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington,

DC 20460.

2. In person or by courier. Deliver

your comments to: Public Information

and Records Integrity Branch (PIRIB),

Information Resources and Services

Division (7502C), Office of Pesticide

Programs (OPP), Environmental

Protection Agency, Rm. 119, Crystal

Mall #2, 1921 Jefferson Davis Highway,

Arlington, VA. The PIRIB is open from

8:30 a.m to 4 p.m., Monday through

Friday, excluding legal holidays. The

PIRIB telephone number is (703) 305–

5805.

3. Electronically. You may submit

your comments electronically by e-mail

to: ‘‘opp-docket@epa.gov,’’ or you can

submit a computer disk as described

above. Do not submit any information

electronically that you consider to be

CBI. Avoid the use of special characters

and any form of encryption. Electronic

submissions will be accepted in

WordPerfect 6.1/8.0 or ASCII file

format. All comments in electronic form

must be identified by docket control

number OPP–30493. Electronic

comments may also be filed online at

many Federal Depository Libraries.

D. How Should I Handle CBI that I Want

to Submit to the Agency?

Do not submit any information

electronically that you consider to be

CBI. You may claim information that

you submit to EPA in response to this

document as CBI by marking any part or

all of that information as CBI.

Information so marked will not be

disclosed except in accordance with

procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2.

In addition to one complete version of

the comment that includes any

information claimed as CBI, a copy of

the comment that does not contain the

information claimed as CBI must be

submitted for inclusion in the public

version of the official record.

Information not marked confidential

will be included in the public version

of the official record without prior

notice. If you have any questions about

CBI or the procedures for claiming CBI,

please consult the person identified

under ‘‘FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT.’’

E. What Should I Consider as I Prepare

My Comments for EPA?

You may find the following

suggestions helpful for preparing your

comments:

1. Explain your views as clearly as

possible.

2. Describe any assumptions that you

used.

3. Provide copies of any technical

information and/or data you used that

support your views.

4. If you estimate potential burden or

costs, explain how you arrived at the

estimate that you provide.

5. Provide specific examples to

illustrate your concerns.

6. Offer alternative ways to improve

the registration activity.

7. Make sure to submit your

comments by the deadline in this

notice.

8. To ensure proper receipt by EPA,

be sure to identify the docket control

number assigned to this action in the

subject line on the first page of your

response. You may also provide the

name, date, and Federal Register

citation.

II. Registration Applications

EPA received applications as follows

to register pesticide products containing

active ingredients not included in any

previously registered products pursuant

to the provision of section 3(c)(4) of

FIFRA. Notice of receipt of these

applications does not imply a decision

by the Agency on the applications.

Products Containing Active Ingredients

Not Included in Any Previously

Registered Products

1. File Symbol: 72898–E. Applicant:

BioTEPP, Inc., 177, 71e Street East,

Charlesbourg, QC, Canada G11 1H4.

Product Name: Virosoft CP4. Microbial

pesticide. Active ingredient: Cydia

pomonella Granulosis Virus at 0.16%.

Proposed classification/Use: For control

of the codling moth on apple trees.

2. File Symbol: 72898–R. Applicant:

BioTEPP, Inc., 177, 71e Street East,

Charlesbourg, QC, Canada G11 1H4.

Product Name: Virosoft BA4. Microbial

pesticide. Active ingredient: Mamestra

configurata Nuclearpolyhedrosis Virus

at 0.16%. Proposed classification/Use:

For control of the berttha armyworm on

canola.

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 136.

List of Subjects

Environmental protection, Pesticides

and pests.

Dated: May 23, 2000.

Janet L. Andersen,

Director, Biopesticides and Pollution

Prevention Division, Office of Pesticide

Programs.

[FR Doc. 00–14185 Filed 6–5–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–F

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[FRL–6709–6]

Policy or Regulatory Flexibility as

Incentive for Improved Environmental

Performance at Laboratories

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice; request for information

under Project XL and Labs21—

Flexibility needs under environmental

policies or regulations that affect

laboratories.

SUMMARY: EPA solicits information from

laboratories on cases where flexibility

under environmental policies or

regulations could result in improved

environmental performance. The

Agency will use this information in an

assessment of whether to provide

flexibility through Project XL to

laboratories who participate in the

emerging Labs21 program. EPA also

seeks candidate laboratories to

participate in a pilot project connected

with this effort.

DATES: The period for the solicitation is

open-ended, although responders are

requested to reply by July 6, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Responders to Section IV of

this Federal Register Notice should

35930 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 109 / Tuesday, June 6, 2000 / Notices

address correspondence to: Nina

Bonnelycke, Mail Code 1802, U.S. EPA,

Ariel Rios Building, 1200 Pennsylvania

Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20460.

Responders may also send information

via email to bonnelycke.nina@epa.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For

specific information on regulatory relief

for laboratories under Project XL or for

general information on Project XL,

please contact Nina Bonnelycke at the

above addresses or at 202–260–3344.

For more information on EPA’s Labs21

program, please contact Phil Wirdzek at

Mail Code 3204, U.S. EPA, Ariel Rios

Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave.,

N.W., Washington, D.C. 20460, phone:

202–564–2094, email:

wirdzek.phil@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

Through its Office of Administration

and Resources Management, EPA is

planning to establish a voluntary

initiative to improve laboratory

environmental performance through

energy- and water-efficiency. This

initiative, named Laboratories for the

21st century or Labs21, evolved from

the Agency’s recent efforts to improve

the environmental performance of its

own laboratories. As part of developing

the Labs21 program, the Agency is

exploring what incentives, if any, might

prompt laboratories to participate in the

new program. Preliminary contacts with

industry representatives indicate that

regulatory relief from environmental

regulations might be one such incentive.

Other examples include awards and

recognition or data sharing on

environmental management practices.

Since Project XL is an existing EPA

program for providing relief from

environmental regulations or

programmatic requirements, the Agency

is exploring using XL as a way to offer

this type of flexibility to Labs21

participants.

II. Labs21 and Project XL

A. Labs21 Overview

EPA recently implemented changes at

its Ann Arbor, Michigan, laboratory that

will accomplish the following: Reduce

annual electricity demand by 68

percent, reduce annual water

consumption by 80 percent, produce

energy and water savings that will

reduce the laboratory’s annual utility

bill by 74 percent, and recoup the cost

of the associated equipment upgrades

within 8 years.

The Agency is currently

implementing comparable modifications

at many of its other laboratories and is

expecting similar results. Based on its

experience with its own facilities, EPA

is exploring whether to develop a

national voluntary initiative, referred to

as Labs21, to encourage similar

improvements at laboratories

throughout the U.S.

As part of developing Labs21, EPA

held an initial planning meeting on

September 9, 1999, to discuss the

emerging program with interested

parties. (Conference information is

available at http://www.epa.gov/labs21

century.) At this meeting, EPA

presented its first-year objectives for

Labs21, which are to: Establish

procedures laboratory owners and

operators can use to evaluate the energyand water-efficiency of their

laboratories, define the participation

requirements for a Labs21 laboratory,

provide opportunities to exchange

information on laboratory energy- and

water-efficiency (e.g., conferences,

newsletters, or websites), identify,

promote, and replicate demonstration

projects to facilitate market acceptance

of advanced energy-and water-efficient

technologies, and establish award

criteria for recognizing Labs21

participants.

EPA is continuing to work with a

group of laboratories, including the

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

and the Lawrence Berkeley National

Laboratory to flesh out the program

further. Interested parties should

contact EPA as indicated above.

B. Project XL Overview

One possible means of adding a

flexibility component to Labs21 might

be Project XL. Project XL is an existing

EPA program specifically designed to

offer flexibility on an experimental

basis, and it has both a continuing

mission and experience in granting

flexibility from environmental

regulations, including regulations that

affect laboratories.

EPA launched Project XL

—‘‘eXcellence and Leadership’’—on

March 16, 1995, as a central part of its

effort to reinvent environmental

protection. (See 60 FR 27282; May 23,

1995.) Project XL gives individual

private and public regulated entities the

opportunity to develop their own pilot

projects wherein the Agency provides

targeted flexibility in exchange for

improved environmental performance.

EPA intends to use Project XL and other

related efforts to test innovative

strategies for reducing the regulatory

burden and promoting economic growth

while achieving better environmental

and public health protection. Through

this testing, EPA can investigate

approaches or legal interpretations that

depart from or are even inconsistent

with longstanding Agency practices, as

long as those interpretations meet the

general mandate of the statutes the

Agency is charged with implementing.

To participate in XL, interested

parties must develop a proposal that

satisfies a number of criteria, including

criteria for superior environmental

performance, transferability, and

stakeholder involvement. In the

evaluation of environmental

performance under XL, EPA seeks

superior performance both in areas

under existing EPA jurisdiction such as

waste handling, air emissions, or

effluent treatment, as well as through

environmental innovations in fields as

diverse as data monitoring and reporting

or product stewardship.

As of December 1999, 31 projects

have met the XL criteria and are in

various stages of development and

implementation. Sixteen (16) new

proposals are in review. For more

information about the XL program, XL

criteria, or about specific XL projects

underway, please refer to http://

www.epa.gov/projectxl or contact EPA

as indicated above under For Further

Information Contact.

C. Existing XL Project Investigates

Regulatory Flexibility for Laboratories

The XL program has an existing

project, the New England Universities

Laboratories XL Project (NE Labs), to

replace certain federal and state

hazardous waste regulations with an

Environmental Management Plan

tailored to university labs. (This project

is described in more detail on the XL

website at http://www.epa.gov/

projectxl/nelabs/index.htm.)

The conflict for universities that this

project works to address is that while

hazardous waste regulations are

typically directed toward large-scale

industrial processes, academic and

teaching laboratories typically use only

small amounts of hazardous chemicals.

This XL project focuses on two specific

environmental management problems

caused by application of the waste

management regulations to university

settings: premature hazardous waste

determination and inefficient collection

of wastes from satellite locations.

Premature hazardous waste

determination occurs when university

workers, in an attempt to adhere to

hazardous waste regulations, discard

used materials as ‘‘hazardous wastes’’

without knowledge of the university’s

options for recycling and reuse. The

result is that the university must

dispose of an unnecessarily large

volume of reusable materials each year,

meaning that the regulations in effect

curb the effectiveness of the university’s

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 109 / Tuesday, June 6, 2000 / Notices 35931

recycling program. In a similar vein, the

3-day satellite accumulation

requirements under hazardous waste

management regulations force

university environmental managers to

pick up and transport wastes on a

frequent but unpredictable basis. The

XL project gives participating

universities the latitude to explore how

to replace the broad-brush hazardous

waste regulations that cause these

inefficiencies with a more targeted,

effective environmental management

system.

It is this type of tradeoff between

regulatory relief and improved

environmental performance that the

Agency hopes to capture in the Labs21

program, and EPA’s expectation is that

the experience the XL program has

gained through running the NE Labs XL

project and other similar projects can

assist EPA in structuring a flexibility

component for Labs21.

III. Definition of ‘‘Laboratory’’

For purposes of this Federal Register

notice, the term ‘‘laboratory’’ includes

research, academic or industrial

laboratories. This definition extends to

facilities that generate product in

commercial quantities in addition to

facilities whose principal output is

research, analysis, or products

manufactured for R&D or other

investigatory purposes.

IV. Information Sought By EPA

A. Types of Flexibility Needed By

Laboratories

In today’s notice, EPA is asking

laboratories to identify specific

examples of environmental regulations

or policies under which the benefit to

the environment appears to be small

compared to the implementation burden

faced by the affected lab. The previous

section describes a case where

university laboratories felt they could

obtain superior environmental

performance by implementing their own

environmental control plan instead of

continuing compliance with existing

hazardous waste regulations. Other

examples may exist, for instance, there

may be air emission or water treatment

standards that, for whatever reason, fail

to achieve their environmental

objectives when applied to laboratory

settings. The Agency will use feedback

received through this Notice to guide its

assessment of whether to offer a

flexibility component in the new Labs21

program.

In addition, the Agency today is

asking laboratories to identify any

regulations or policies issued by other

federal agencies where the benefit to the

environment appears to be small

compared to the implementation burden

faced by the affected lab. Examples of

federal agencies with jurisdiction over

laboratories’ environmental

performance include the Food and Drug

Administration or the Department of

Transportation. The feedback EPA

receives will help the Agency assess the

need to coordinate with other federal

agencies regarding flexibility for

laboratories.

B. Laboratories Interested in

Participating in a Pilot Project

Through today’s notice, EPA requests

contact with laboratories that want to

participate in an XL project to grant

flexibility as part of the Labs21 program.

These candidates, referred to as

‘‘sponsors’’ under XL, should be

interested in obtaining regulatory or

programmatic flexibility for their lab,

should have some specific ideas

concerning requirements that EPA

should consider waiving, or should

have broad knowledge of the regulatory

obstacles to environmental performance

that laboratories face.

Through participating, sponsors will

not only have a chance to secure

regulatory or programmatic relief for

their facilities, but will also have an

opportunity to shape the dialogue

between laboratories and EPA on how to

maximize environmental performance at

labs.

Dated: May 22, 2000.

Jay Benforado,

Acting Associate Administrator, Office of

Policy and Reinvention.

[FR Doc. 00–14183 Filed 6–5–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

COMMISSION

RIN 3046–AA58

Agency Information Collection

Activities: Submission for OMB Review

AGENCY: Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission.

ACTION: Final notice of submission for

OMB review.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the

Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission (EEOC) hereby gives notice

that it has submitted to the Office of

Management and Budget (OMB) a

request for an extension of the existing

collection requirements under 29 CFR

1625.22, Waivers of rights and claims

under the ADEA. The Commission has

requested an extension of an existing

collection as listed below.

DATES: Written comments on this notice

must be submitted on or before July 6,

2000.

ADDRESSES: The Request for Clearance

(SF 83–I), supporting statement, and

other documents submitted to OMB for

review may be obtained from: Sherman

McDaniel, Jr., EEOC Clearance Officer,

1801 L St., NW., Washington, DC 20507.

Send comments regarding any aspect of

the information collection to Frances M.

Hart, Executive Officer, Executive

Secretariat, Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission, 10th Floor,

1801 L Street, NW., Washington, DC

20507, and to the Office of Information

and Regulatory Affairs, Attention:

Danny Werfel, Desk Officer for the U.S.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission, Office of Management and

Budget, 725 17th Street, NW., Room

10235, New Executive Office Building,

Washington, DC 20503. Comments may

be electronically mailed to

DWERFEL@OMB.EOP.GOV.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Joseph N. Cleary, Assistant Legal

Counsel, Office of Legal Counsel, at

(202) 663–4647 or TTY (202) 663–7026.

This notice is also available in the

following formats: large print, braille,

audio tape and electronic file on

computer disk. Requests for this notice

in an alternative format should be made

to the Publications Center at 1–800–

669–3362.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Equal

Employment Opportunity Commission

(EEOC) enforces the ADEA of 1967, as

amended, 29 U.S.C. 621 et seq., which

prohibits discrimination against

employees and applicants for

employment who are age 40 or older.

Congress amended the ADEA by

enacting the Older Workers Benefit

Protection Act of 1990 (OWBPA), Public

Law 101–433, 104 Stat. 983 (1990), to

clarify the prohibitions against

discrimination on the basis of age. In

Title II of OWBPA, Congress addressed

waivers of rights and claims under the

ADEA, amending section 7 of the ADEA

by adding a new subsection (f), 29

U.S.C. 626(f). The provisions of Title II

of OWBPA do require employers to

provide certain information to

employees (but not to EEOC) in writing.

The regulation at 29 CFR 1625.22

reiterates those requirements.

The EEOC seeks extension without

change of the information collection

requirements contained in this

recordkeeping regulation. On March 24,

2000, the Commission published a 60–

Day Notice informing the public of its

intent to request an extension of the