Menominee Indian Tribe Of Wisconsin v. U.S. E.P.A.

360 F. Supp. 3d 847
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedDecember 19, 2018
DocketCase No. 18-C-108
StatusPublished

This text of 360 F. Supp. 3d 847 (Menominee Indian Tribe Of Wisconsin v. U.S. E.P.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Menominee Indian Tribe Of Wisconsin v. U.S. E.P.A., 360 F. Supp. 3d 847 (E.D. Wis. 2018).

Opinion

1. APA claim regarding the EPA's withdrawal of its objections to the proposed permit

The Tribe asserts in the proposed amended complaint that the EPA's decision to withdraw its objections to the assumed Section 404 permit was arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law under the APA. The APA authorizes suit by "a person suffering legal wrong because of agency action, or adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action ... to judicial review thereof." 5 U.S.C. § 702. The APA allows a district court to "hold unlawful and set aside" any agency action that is "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." § 706(2)(A). The APA precludes judicial review of agency actions that are "committed to agency discretion by law." § 701(a)(2). The "committed to agency discretion" exception applies only "in those rare instances where statutes are drawn in such broad terms that in a given case there is no law to apply," or when "the statute is drawn so that a court would have no meaningful standard against which to judge the agency's exercise of discretion." Citizens to Pres. Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe , 401 U.S. 402, 410, 91 S.Ct. 814, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971) (quotation marks and citations omitted);

*854Heckler v. Chaney , 470 U.S. 821, 830, 105 S.Ct. 1649, 84 L.Ed.2d 714 (1985).

The Tribe asserts that the EPA's ultimate conduct in withdrawing its objections is judicially reviewable final agency action that is not committed to agency discretion by law. It maintains that once the EPA objected and inserted itself into the permitting process, its decision to withdraw the objections cannot be arbitrary and capricious or contrary to law. The defendants contend that the EPA's decision to withdraw its objections is not reviewable because it was an action committed to the EPA's discretion.

At issue in this case, then, is whether the EPA's decision to withdraw its objections to a Section 404 permit proposal is an action committed to the EPA's discretion and thus unreviewable by this court. The Seventh Circuit touched on this issue, albeit in the context of a different permitting program, in American Paper Institute, Inc. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency , 890 F.2d 869 (7th Cir. 1989). There, the EPA authorized the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) to issue permits to point sources, or pollutant dischargers, in Wisconsin under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), 33 U.S.C. § 1251, et seq. The WDNR proposed to issue thirteen permits to paper and pulp mills in Wisconsin. The EPA notified the WDNR that it objected to all of the permits proposed, allowed comments on the objections, and provided a public hearing on the objections. The EPA later modified some of its objections but reaffirmed its remaining objections to eleven permits. The WDNR subsequently modified the permits. American Paper Institute and four paper and pulp mill owners challenged the EPA's authority to object to the NPDES permits proposed by the WDNR. Am. Paper , 890 F.2d at 872.

The Seventh Circuit held that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to hear the appeal and dismissed the petition. Id. at 878. The court noted that, while "EPA objections could arguably be challenged in district court under the Administrative Procedure Act," such review is unavailable because the CWA precludes federal review of state-issued permits and an EPA objection is an agency action committed to agency discretion. Id. at 875. The court recognized that the CWA "reflects 'the desire of Congress to put the regulatory burden on the states and to give the [EPA] broad discretion in administering the program.' " Id. (alterations in original) (quoting District of Columbia v. Schramm , 631 F.2d 854, 860 (D.C. Cir. 1980) ). Because the CWA "demonstrates an intent for the EPA and the states to work through differences in permitting decisions, and the EPA needs a range of discretion to accomplish this goal," the court concluded "federal courts should leave EPA with its discretion to review state-issued permits." Id.

In this case, much like the NPDES permitting program, the state permitting process under Section 404 gives state officials primary responsibility to review and approve permits and allows the EPA to exercise broad discretion in overseeing the program, which includes the decision of whether to object to the permit and withdraw those objections once it determines the objections have been resolved. Indeed, Section 404 and the EPA's corresponding regulations do not contain language requiring that the EPA object to or comment on a proposed permit. Although the regulations indicate that permit objections "shall be based on the Administrator's determination that the proposed permit is (1) the subject of an interstate dispute under § 233.31(a) and/or (2) outside requirements of the Act, these regulations, or the *855404(b)(1) Guidelines," 40 C.F.R.

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Related

United States v. Sherwood
312 U.S. 584 (Supreme Court, 1941)
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Bluebook (online)
360 F. Supp. 3d 847, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/menominee-indian-tribe-of-wisconsin-v-us-epa-wied-2018.