J.V. Peters & Co. v. Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency

767 F.2d 263, 15 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20646, 22 ERC (BNA) 2073, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 20277
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJuly 3, 1985
DocketNo. 84-3229
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 767 F.2d 263 (J.V. Peters & Co. v. Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J.V. Peters & Co. v. Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, 767 F.2d 263, 15 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20646, 22 ERC (BNA) 2073, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 20277 (6th Cir. 1985).

Opinion

BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge.

This case presents the question whether there is a private cause of action to challenge governmental action taken under section 104(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (the Superfund legislation), 42 U.S.C. § 9604(a), prior to a governmental suit for liability under section 107(a) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a). The district court held that there was such a cause of action, but that plaintiffs’ conclusory allegations failed to state a cognizable claim. J.V. Peters & Co. v. Ruckelshaus, 584 F.Supp. 1005 (N.D.Ohio 1984). We affirm the judgment but not the reasoning of the district court.

J.V. Peters and Company, Inc., was an Ohio corporation engaged in the business of storing and recycling industrial waste products at a site in Middlefield Township, Geauga County, Ohio. The site contained, among other things, acetone, ketones, toluene, and benzene, all inflammable, carcinogenic, or both, and, as plaintiffs concede, all are hazardous substances as defined in section 101(14) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9601(14). The chemicals were stored in some 800 metal drums, many of them leaking, some inside an unsecured building and others outside. Cattle grazed within a few feet of the east side of the site, and corn was grown immediately to the west of the property line; children walked past the site on their way to a school less than IV2 miles away.

After the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency found that state court proceedings were unsuccessful in getting the site cleaned up, it contacted the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA was unable to negotiate an acceptable cleanup plan with J.V. Peters and determined to take action under section-104(a)(1) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9604(a)(1). J.V. Peters and related parties then brought this action to prevent the EPA from taking action, claiming that they would automatically be made liable for cleanup costs under section 107(a) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a), without a hearing and without an adequate remedy at law. The district court dismissed the case from the bench on November 18, 1983, and the EPA immediately took removal and remedial action to clean up the site. The court issued a written opinion on February 17,1984, and plaintiffs appealed.

If plaintiffs have a cognizable claim at this point, it must be under the Administrative Procedures Act, which states that “[ajgency action made reviewable by statute and final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court are subject to judicial review.” 5 U.S.C. § 704. The agency determination to take response action under section 104(a) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9604(a), is not explicitly made reviewable by statute, nor do we believe that such a cause of action should be inferred from the Act. To the contrary, explicit causes of action are allowed in sections 106 and 107, 42 U.S.C. §§ 9606, 9607, but none is provided for in section 104. Because the Act’s primary purpose is “the prompt cleanup of hazardous waste sites,” Walls v. Waste Resource Corp., 761 F.2d 311, 318 (6th Cir.1985), allowance of a cause of action prior to a response action would debilitate the central function of the Act. Lone Pine Steering Committee v. EPA, 600 F.Supp. 1487, 1495 (D.N.J.1985); accord [265]*265Aminoil, Inc. v. EPA, 599 F.Supp. 69, 71 (C.D.Cal.1984). Additionally, Congress is now considering legislation to provide explicitly that judicial review of response actions is unavailable, S. 51, 99th Cong., 1st Sess. (1985), and the Senate Report indicates this as a clarification of existing law:

Pre-enforcement review
Response actions or orders under section 104 and orders under section 106 may be subject to judicial review at the time the government seeks cost recovery or acts to enforce the order and collect penalties for noncompliance. This amendment clarifies and confirms that response actions and orders are not subject to judicial review prior to that time.
As several courts have noted, the scheme and purposes of CERCLA would be disrupted by affording judicial review of orders or response actions prior to commencement of a government enforcement or cost recovery action. See, e.g., Lone Pine Steering Committee v. EPA, 600 F.Supp. 1487 (D.N.J.1985). These cases correctly interpret CERCLA with regard to the unavailability of pre-enforcement review. This amendment is to expressly recognize that pre-enforcement review would be a significant obstacle to the implementation of response actions and the use of administrative orders. Pre-enforcement review would lead to considerable delay in providing cleanups, would increase response costs, and would discourage settlements and voluntary cleanups.

S.Rep. No. 11, 99th Cong., 1st Sess. 58 (1985).

Nor do we believe that a response action is final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court. In general, agency action is final for purposes of review if it is a definitive ruling or regulation, it has legal force or practical effect upon the plaintiff’s daily business, or immediate judicial review would serve either efficiency or enforcement of the statute. Federal Trade Commission v. Standard Oil Co., 449 U.S. 232, 239-43, 101 S.Ct. 488, 493-95, 66 L.Ed.2d 416 (1980). Plaintiffs do not argue that immediate judicial review would serve either efficiency or enforcement of the Act, but they do argue that the strict liability provisions of section 107(a) of the Act make a response action a definitive ruling with legal force. Section 107(a) provides:

(a) Covered persons; scope
Notwithstanding any other provision or rule of law, and subject only to the defenses set forth in subsection (b) of this section—
(1) the owner and operator of a vessel (otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of the United States) or a facility,
(2) any person who at the time of disposal of any hazardous substance owned or operated any facility at which such hazardous substances were disposed of,
(3) any person who by contract, agreement, or otherwise arranged for disposal or treatment, or arranged with a transporter for transport for disposal or treatment, of hazardous substances owned or possessed by such person, by any other party or entity, at any facility owned or operated by another party or entity and containing such hazardous substances, and

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767 F.2d 263, 15 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20646, 22 ERC (BNA) 2073, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 20277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jv-peters-co-v-administrator-environmental-protection-agency-ca6-1985.