Commonwealth, Department of Environmental Resources v. United States Small Business Administration

579 A.2d 1001, 134 Pa. Commw. 468, 1990 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 466
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 20, 1990
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 579 A.2d 1001 (Commonwealth, Department of Environmental Resources v. United States Small Business Administration) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Commonwealth, Department of Environmental Resources v. United States Small Business Administration, 579 A.2d 1001, 134 Pa. Commw. 468, 1990 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 466 (Pa. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

CRAIG, President Judge.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (DER or department) has filed a motion for partial summary judgment on the department’s complaint against the United States Small Business Administration (SBA). DER’s complaint seeks judicial relief that would require SBA to assess, remove and clean up hazardous, residual and industrial waste SBA allegedly has stored, spilled and disposed of at its Mountville Wallpaper Company Facility in Lancaster County. The complaint also requests injunctive relief that would prohibit any future disposal or creation of industrial and hazardous waste at the site. DER’s complaint requests this court to order SBA to comply with state environmental laws, and asks for equitable relief and civil fines if SBA fails to comply with the relief this court ultimately may grant.

The facts DER alleges in the complaint are as follows. SBA acquired the facility in 1987. DER conducted an inspection of the facility on May 22, 1987, which revealed that SBA had stored between seventy-five and one hundred drums containing contaminants at several places on the facility. On August 25, 1988, the Commonwealth’s Toxic Waste Investigation and Prosecution Section obtained samples from several of the drums and from soil around leaking drums. The results from tests of the samples revealed the presence of hazardous substances. DER contends that these substances have contaminated or threaten to contaminate soils, sediments, and water of the Commonwealth.

The complaint charges that SBA has discharged or stored hazardous or residual wastes without permits which the Commonwealth’s environmental laws require, and in violation of state laws and regulations.

SBA’s answer and new matter to the complaint raises sovereign immunity as an affirmative defense. DER’s motion for partial summary judgment seeks a ruling by this court that Congress has waived the sovereign immunity defenses on which SBA relies.

[471]*471The issues presented are: (1) Whether section 6001 of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 42 U.S.C. § 6961, provides for a waiver of sovereign immunity that permits DER to seek enforcement of the Commonwealth’s Solid Waste Management Act (SWMA)1 against SBA in the operation of the facility; (2) Whether section 313(a) of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), 33 U.S.C. § 1323(a), which waives sovereign immunity, permits DER to pursue a complaint against SBA, as owner of the site, for the operation of a facility at which industrial waste is present in the soils and water in violation of the Commonwealth’s Clean Streams Law (CSL)2; and (3) Whether the waiver of sovereign immunity in the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. § 9619, permits DER to pursue a complaint that seeks to impose liability under Pennsylvania law with respect to the hazardous substances at SBA’s facility.

1. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

The waiver of sovereign immunity provision in the federal RCRA states in pertinent part:

Each department, agency, or instrumentality of the Federal Government____ engaged in any activity resulting, or which may result, in the disposal or management of solid waste or hazardous waste shall be subject to, and comply with, all____State----requirements, both substantive and procedural (including any requirement for permits or reporting or any provisions for injunctive relief and such sanctions as may be imposed by a court to enforce such relief), respecting control and abatement of solid waste or hazardous waste disposal in the same manner, and to the same extent, as any person is subject to such requirements, including the payment of [472]*472reasonable service charges. 42 U.S.C. § 6961 (emphasis added).

This court’s conclusion is that RCRA’s waiver of immunity clearly encompasses the application of Pennsylvania’s Solid Waste Management Law, and the regulations DER has promulgated under that law, and relies upon here, to SBA’s activities at the site, as alleged in DER’s complaint.

DER’s complaint charges that SBA has stored and disposed or discharged residual and hazardous wastes onto or into the ground on the facility without a permit in violation of sections 301 and 401(a), 35 P.S. §§ 6018.301 and 401(a), of the SWMA, and in violation of 25 Pa.Code §§ 75.21(a) and 75.270(a).

Sections 301 and 401(a) of the state SWMA respectively require persons to obtain permits from DER before storing or processing residual or hazardous wastes. The Pennsylvania Code regulations require persons to comply with DER’s permitting process before engaging in activities relating to the use of land for storing or processing solid waste or hazardous waste.

The specific issue SBA raises with respect to the RCRA waiver is whether the statutory and regulatory provisions relating to solid waste disposal, which DER alleges SBA has violated, constitute “requirements”, to which the waiver provision refers. SBA argues that Congress, by using the word “requirements”, intended to limit the scope of the immunity waiver to objectively ascertainable, administratively-predetermined substantive requirements that state environmental authorities and courts can apply uniformly. SBA, relying on two United States Supreme Court decisions, EPA v. California ex rel. State Water Resources Control, 426 U.S. 200, 96 S.Ct. 2022, 48 L.Ed.2d 578 (1976), and Hancock v. Train, 426 U.S. 167, 96 S.Ct. 2006, 48 L.Ed.2d 555 (1976), contends that the statutes and regulations at issue do not constitute “requirements” that render the federal government subject to those state laws. In those decisions, the Supreme Court narrowly interpreted the word “requirements”, as used in the immunity waiver [473]*473of the federal Clean Water Act, which is similar to RGRA’s waiver, to mean only objectively quantifiable effluent limitations and standards.

As DER points out, Congress responded to the Supreme Court’s narrow interpretation of the CWA’s waiver provision by amending the waiver in 1977. As DER notes, in Hancock, the Supreme Court thought significant the fact that the waiver in the CWA did not say that federal facilities should comply with “all ... state requirements”. Hancock, 426 U.S. at 182, 96 S.Ct. at 2014. Hence, the fact that Congress, in enacting the RCRA three months after the Supreme Court’s decision, incorporated the word “all” to modify the word “requirements” in the BCRA’s waiver provision, supports BER’s position.

Despite this historical perspective, SBA, relying on federal decisions that have considered the post-amendment provisions, argues that the waiver does not encompass the provisions of the state SWMA and regulations BER seeks to enforce. We disagree.

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579 A.2d 1001, 134 Pa. Commw. 468, 1990 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-department-of-environmental-resources-v-united-states-small-pacommwct-1990.