DC:50555045.1 

EMAIL ADDRESS

mboucher@mckennalong.com

MICHAEL BOUCHER

(202) 496-7729 

1900 K Street, NW • Washington, DC 20006 

Tel: 202.496.7500 • Fax: 202.496.7756 

www.mckennalong.com 

Albany

Atlanta 

Brussels 

Denver 

Los Angeles 

New York

Philadelphia 

Sacramento 

San Diego 

San Francisco 

Washington, DC 

June 25, 2008 

BY FACSIMILE & ELECTRONIC MAIL

Frank T. Sanders, Director 

Antimicrobial Division 

Office of Pesticide Programs 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

One Potomac Yard 

2777 South Crystal Drive 

Arlington, Virginia 22202 

Re: Petition to Cancel Registration of Busan® 1215, EPA Reg. No. 1448-433 

Dear Mr. Sanders: 

We are writing on behalf of our client Buckman Laboratories, Inc. (“Buckman”), the 

registrant of Busan 1215. In speaking with Dennis Edwards yesterday (June 24), we learned to 

our astonishment that EPA received a petition from Nalco Company (“Nalco”) in December of 

2007 to cancel Buckman’s registration of Busan 1215, EPA Reg. No. 1448-433. Without yet 

having provided Buckman with notice of Nalco’s petition (c.f., 40 C.F.R. § 152.99(b)(2)), EPA 

has started to prepare a formal written response to the petition. In the meantime, however, EPA 

also has granted Nalco’s petition in effect by authorizing Nalco to distribute and sell an 

unregistered pesticide product, Nalcon 60620, that is chemically equivalent to Busan 1215 and is 

marketed to the same customers for the same commercial application, namely, in situ production 

of monochloramine (a microbiocide) by pulp and paper mills for use in manufacturing paper and 

paperboard for food packaging. Furthermore, EPA has accepted the fiction that Nalcon 60620 is 

a “halogen stabilizer,” even though Nalco’s technically sophisticated pulp and paper mill 

customers intentionally use Nalcon 60620 to produce monochloramine, and Nalcon knows that 

its customers use Nalcon 60620 for this purpose. 

Although Buckman’s registration of Busan 1215 is under attack by Nalco, EPA has kept 

Buckman in the dark about Nalco’s petition and deprived Buckman of the opportunity to defend 

its registration. Even though Nalco’s continued distribution and sale of Nalcon 60620 without a 

registration has a substantial negative effect on Buckman’s own product sales and its competitive 

position in the marketplace for pulp and paper biocides, EPA also has deprived Buckman of the 
Frank T. Sanders, Director 

June 25, 2008 

Page 2 

DC:50555045.1 

opportunity to challenge EPA’s decision to allow the distribution and sale of Nalcon 60620 

without a registration, which contradicts the Agency’s rationale for registering Busan 1215, 

undermines EPA’s own regulatory authority under FIFRA, and presents imminent threats to 

worker safety and aquatic organisms, because EPA has not evaluated and approved Nalco’s label 

statements and directions for use to ensure that safe levels of monochloramine are produced and 

used in situ and, later, released to waste water. 

Accordingly, we respectfully request that EPA immediately provide us with a copy of 

Nalco’s December 2007 petition and records of all EPA correspondence with Nalco to date 

regarding the petition, including but not limited to the Agency’s decision to allow the continued 

distribution and sale of Nalcon 60620 without a registration, in whatever form EPA 

communicated such decision to Nalco. We also request an immediate meeting with EPA in 

Washington, D.C. to address Nalco’s petition and the Agency’s decision to allow the distribution 

and sale of Nalcon 60620 without a registration, since Buckman has been unfairly deprived of 

the opportunity to defend its registration and business interests for six months, while EPA has 

entertained Nalco’s petition in secret and while Nalco has actively undermined Buckman’s 

market position with Nalcon’s unregistered pesticide product. We also request EPA’s immediate 

assurance that it will not take any final action on Nalco’s petition without having provided 

Buckman with a meaningful opportunity to address Nalco’s petition and EPA’s decision to allow 

the distribution and sale of Nalcon 60620 without a registration. 

We will telephone you later today to confirm your receipt of this letter and to discuss 

EPA’s availability for a face-to-face meeting in Washington, D.C. Given Buckman’s lengthy 

exclusion from the ongoing petition process to cancel Buckman’s registration of Busan 1215 and 

given the commercial damage already done and still being done to Buckman by EPA’s decision 

to allow the distribution and sale of Nalcon 60620 without a registration, we would appreciate 

the Agency’s prompt attention to our requests. 

Very truly yours, 

Michael Boucher 

/mb 

Attachment (2 pp.) 

cc: Betty Shackleford, Associate Director, EPA/OPP/AD (by electronic mail) 

Dennis Edwards, Branch Chief, EPA/OPP/AD (by electronic mail)