Action Levels — (1) Regulatory levels recommended by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) for enforcement by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) when pesticide residues occur
in food or feed commodities for reasons other than the direct application of
the pesticide. As opposed to "tolerances," which are established for
residues occurring as a direct result of proper usage, action levels are set
for inadvertent residues resulting from previous legal use or accidental
contamination. (2) In the Superfund program, the existence of
a contaminant concentration in the environment high enough to warrant action or
trigger a response under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act
(SARA) of 1986 and the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan.
The term is also used in other regulatory programs.