§ 2-27-9 — Registration, Application, and Fees; Registration Powers of Commissioner; Appeal and Review

Alabama § 2-27-9

• Jurisdiction: Alabama
• Title 2: Agriculture
• Ch. 27: Pesticides
• Art. 1: Alabama Pesticide Act

Text

(a) Every pesticide or device which is distributed, sold, or offered for sale within this state or delivered for transportation or transported in intrastate commerce or between points within this state through any point outside this state shall be registered with the commissioner upon application forms prescribed and furnished by the commissioner, and such registration or registrations shall be renewed during the registrant’s renewal year, due January 1 of the renewal year. The applicant shall pay a biennial registration fee established by the Board of Agriculture and Industries not to exceed six hundred dollars ($600). The fee shall be paid according to the schedule in subsection (i). The fee shall accompany the application for registration and be deposited to the credit of the Agricultural Fund of the State Treasury for the exclusive benefit of the Pesticide Management Division of the Department of Agriculture and Industries. The fees shall be used by the department for enforcement of Chapters 27 and 28. If the registration fee is not paid by March 1, or within 60 days following its due date, a delinquency penalty of one hundred fifty dollars ($150) per product to be registered shall be added to the amount thereof.
Pesticides may also be registered for special local needs as provided under duly adopted regulations of the board and pursuant to the requirements of the federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, as amended. Special local need registration means registration of a pesticide for use under conditions of special local need as defined by the federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, as amended. The fee and other requirements for special local need pesticide registration shall be the same as other pesticide registration requirements. The application for registration shall contain a statement containing all of the following information:
(1) The name and address of the applicant and the name and address of the person whose name will appear on the label, if other than the applicant.
(2) The name of the pesticide with an ingredient statement.
(3) A complete copy of the labeling accompanying the pesticide and a statement of all claims to be made for it including directions for use.
(4) If requested by the commissioner, a full description of the tests made, and the results thereof, upon which the claims are based. In the case of renewal of registration, a statement shall be required only with respect to information which is different from that furnished when the pesticide was registered or last reregistered.
(b) The commissioner, whenever deemed necessary in the administration of this article, may require the submission of the complete formula and method of analysis of any pesticide. If it appears to the commissioner that the composition of the article is such as to warrant the proposed claims for it and if the article and its labeling and other material required to be submitted comply with the requirements of Section 2-27-14, he or she shall register the article.
(c) If it is determined as provided under subsection (d) of Section 2-27-6 that a pesticide, based upon its formulation and directions for use, warnings and cautions contained in its registered labeling, may not, without additional restrictions, be applied for its intended use without substantial adverse effects on the environment, including injury to the applicator, such a pesticide shall be designated as a restricted-use pesticide.
(d) If it does not appear to the commissioner that the article is such as to warrant the proposed claims for it or if the article and its labeling and other material required to be submitted do not comply with the provisions of this article, he or she shall notify the applicant of the manner in which the article, labeling, or other material required to be submitted fail to comply with the article so as to afford the applicant an opportunity to make the necessary corrections.
If, upon receipt of such notice, the applicant does not make the corrections, the commissioner may refuse to register the article. The commissioner, in accordance with the procedures specified in this section, may suspend or cancel the registration of a pesticide whenever it does not appear that the article or its labeling complies with the provisions of this article. Whenever an application for registration is refused or the commissioner proposes to suspend or cancel a registration as authorized under subsections (c), (d), and (e) of this section, notice of such action shall be given to the applicant or registrant who shall have 20 days from the date of such notice to request a hearing on the proposed action of the commissioner. The hearing shall be conducted by the commissioner, or his or her designee, for the purpose of receiving evidence relevant and material to the issues, following the conclusion of which the commissioner shall issue an order with findings of fact and notify the applicant or registrant thereof. The commissioner’s order shall be based only on substantial evidence of record taken at the hearing.
Any person adversely affected by such an order of the commissioner may obtain judicial review thereof by filing in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, within 30 days after the entry of the order, a complaint requesting that the order be set aside in whole or in part. A copy of the petition shall be forthwith served upon the commissioner, and within 20 days from the date of service of the complaint, the commissioner shall file an answer accompanied by the record of the proceedings on which the order was based. The court shall have jurisdiction to affirm or set aside the order complained of, in whole or in part, following a hearing upon the complaint and answer. The findings of the commissioner with respect to questions of fact shall be sustained if supported by substantial evidence when considered on the record as a whole. The court may sustain the order of the commissioner, set aside or reverse the action of the commissioner, or it may remand the matter to the commissioner to take further testimony if there are reasonable grounds for the failure to adduce such evidence in the prior hearing. The commissioner may modify findings and the order by reason of the additional evidence so taken and shall file the additional record and any modification of the findings or order with the register or clerk of the court.
(e) Upon the advice of the Pesticide Advisory Committee and with the approval of the board, the commissioner shall refuse the registration or cancel the registration of any pesticide or device previously registered where it is determined that the use of the pesticide according to directions on the label poses a substantial adverse effect on humans, animals, or the general environment. Any person upon being notified of the refusal or cancellation of registration of a pesticide shall be entitled to the review, hearing, and appeal rights as provided under subsection (d).
(f) Experimental labels may be required to be affixed to containers of pesticides if the pesticide is for experimental use.
(g) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article, registration is not required in the case of a pesticide shipped from one plant within this state to another plant within this state operated by the same person.
(h) The registration fee as required under this section, together with the dealer license fee required under Section 2-27-10, shall be paid by cooperative marketing and purchasing associations and any exemption allowed such organizations pursuant to Section 2-10-105 or any other exemption statute shall not relieve such associations from the payment of such fees. Any amount improperly or illegally collected under the provisions of this article as overpayments, through mistake or otherwise, may be refunded to the person entitled thereto in accordance with Section 2-1-6.
(i)(1) Except as provided in subdivision (2), all registrations issued by the department pursuant to subsection (a) shall be paid according to the following staggered schedule:
a. All registrations issued to registrants whose names begin with the letters A through M shall expire on December 31, 2013. Upon expiration of registration on December 31, 2013, a registrant whose name begins with letters A through M may renew a registration for a period of two years upon payment of a fee of five hundred dollars ($500) per product. The registration shall be valid until December 31, 2015. The registrant may renew every two years thereafter upon payment of the fee of six hundred dollars ($600).
b. All registrations issued to registrants whose names begin with the letters N through Z shall expire on December 31, 2012. Upon expiration of the registration on December 31, 2012, a registrant whose name begins with letters N through Z may renew a registration for a period of two years upon payment of a fee of five hundred dollars ($500) per product. The registration shall be valid until December 31, 2014. After December 31, 2014, the registrant may renew a registration for a period of two years upon payment of a fee of six hundred dollars ($600) per product.
(2) All registrations issued by the department to a registrant who is applying to register an additional pesticide during the second year of the registrant’s registration period shall expire December 31 of that year.
(3) An application for registration shall be accompanied by a fee of six hundred dollars ($600) for each pesticide except as provided in subdivisions (1) and (2).

Legislative History

(Acts 1951, No. 908, p. 1548, §3; Acts 1971, No. 1949, p. 3151, §4; Acts 1989, No. 89-743, p. 1473; Acts 1991, No. 91-556, p. 1025, §1; Act 2004-516, p. 996, §1; Act 2011-549, p. 1010, §1; Act 2012-403, p. 1102, §1.)