Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Co. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

554 F.2d 885, 10 ERC 1082, 7 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20415, 10 ERC (BNA) 1082, 1977 U.S. App. LEXIS 13446
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 11, 1977
Docket76-1731
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 554 F.2d 885 (Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Co. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Co. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, 554 F.2d 885, 10 ERC 1082, 7 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20415, 10 ERC (BNA) 1082, 1977 U.S. App. LEXIS 13446 (8th Cir. 1977).

Opinion

MATTHES, Senior Circuit Judge.

The primary question for determination on this appeal is whether an alleged violator of section 113(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c-8(a)(l), is empowered to maintain a pre-enforcement action to test the validity of an abatement order issued by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This is a question of first impression in the courts of appeals. Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Company (plaintiff) filed such an action against the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Russell Train, as EPA Administrator, Jerome H. Svore, as EPA Administrator for Region VII, and Earl J. Stephenson, as Director of the Enforcement Division for Region VII. The district court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and plaintiff has appealed from the dismissal.

I

Plaintiff operates an asphalt roofing plant in North Kansas City, Missouri. A by-product of its operation is a mixture of asphalt particles and gas which, after passing through the plant’s air pollution control system, is emitted as a plume from a 100 foot high stack.

Effective January 5, 1969 the EPA Administrator approved certain regulations known as “Air Quality Standards and Air Pollution Control Regulations for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area,” which had been submitted by Missouri as part of the state implementation plan pursuant to section 110(a) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c-5. Regulation V — Restriction of Emission of Visible Air Contaminants prohibits the discharge of air contaminants of a certain density, except where failure to meet the requirement stems solely from the presence of “uncombined water.” Regulation V provides in pertinent part as follows:

A. Restrictions Applicable to All Installations
No person may discharge into the ambient air from sources of emission whatsoever any air contaminant a.) of a shade or density equal to or darker than designated as No. 1 on the Ringelmann Chart, or b.) of such capacity [sic ] as to obscure an observer’s view to a degree equal to or greater than does smoke designated as No. 1 on the Ringelmann Chart.
B. Exceptions
* * * * * *
*887 2. Where the presence of uncombined water is the only reason for failure of an emission to meet the requirements of Section A of this Regulation Y, such sections shall not apply.
******
C. Method of Measurement
The Ringelmann Chart shall be the standard in grading the shade or opacity of visible air contaminant emissions. The Executive Secretary may with the consent of the source operator employ any other means of measurement which give comparable results of greater accuracy.

On September 25, 1975, defendant Svore, as Regional Administrator of EPA, issued a notice informing plaintiff that it was in violation of Regulation V. The notice was based on visual smoke readings which indicated that the opacity of the plume from plaintiff’s stack exceeded that allowable under Regulation V. Plaintiff requested an opportunity to confer with EPA representatives concerning the alleged violation. A formal evidentiary hearing was held on November 7, 1975 at EPA’s Region VII office in Kansas City. By letter of January 9, 1976, plaintiff was directed to install sampling ports and scaffolding on the main stack in preparation for an EPA stack test. Plaintiff consented to the stack test, but refused to install the necessary equipment at its own expense. On March 9, 1976, defendant Stephenson, as Director of the Enforcement Division for Region VII, issued an order pursuant to section 113(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c-8(a)(1) directing plaintiff to eliminate opacity violations within the time schedule set forth therein.

On April 13, 1976, plaintiff filed a verified complaint seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to set aside the notice of violation and order as being unlawful, arbitrary, and capricious. Additionally, plaintiff sought a declaratory judgment finding Regulation V unconstitutional, Plaintiff alleged, in effect, that it was in compliance with the regulation because it was emitting a “wet” plume of less than twenty percent opacity and that the regulation was unconstitutionally vague because it contained no definition of “uncombined water” and failed to advise the industry of the scope of prohibited conduct. Jurisdiction was asserted under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., the federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, the statute conferring jurisdiction over cases arising under statutes affecting commerce, 28 U.S.C. § 1337, and the mandamus statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1361.

On May 6, 1976, defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint insofar as it sought pre-enforcement review of the abatement order and judicial review of Regulation V. Defendants’ motion to dismiss was based upon contentions that Congress intended to preclude pre-enforcement review of EPA abatement orders and to make the United States Court of Appeals the exclusive forum for review of federally approved state implementation plans. On June 25, 1976, the district court filed a judgment granting defendants’ motion to dismiss. The court concluded, in an accompanying memorandum opinion, that it lacked jurisdiction to grant the relief requested in plaintiff’s complaint. See Lloyd A. Fry Roofing Co. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, 415 F.Supp.799 (W.D.Mo.1976).

II

We address, initially, the question whether the district court correctly ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to review the abatement order issued against plaintiff. Plaintiff argues, and the defendants concede, that even in the absence of any provision for judicial review there is a strong presumption in favor of judicial review of final ■ agency action, and that to preclude such review there must be a showing of “clear and convincing evidence” of a contrary legislative intent, Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 141, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967); see Dunlop v. Bachowski, 421 U.S. 560, 567, 95 S.Ct. 1851, 44 L.Ed.2d 377 (1975); Ortego v. Weinberger, 516 F.2d 1005, 1009 (5th Cir. 1975); Garvey v. Freeman,

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Bluebook (online)
554 F.2d 885, 10 ERC 1082, 7 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20415, 10 ERC (BNA) 1082, 1977 U.S. App. LEXIS 13446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lloyd-a-fry-roofing-co-v-united-states-environmental-protection-agency-ca8-1977.