Missouri Soybean Ass'n v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

289 F.3d 509
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 6, 2002
DocketNo. 01-2905
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 289 F.3d 509 (Missouri Soybean Ass'n 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
Missouri Soybean Ass'n v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, 289 F.3d 509 (8th Cir. 2002).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The Missouri Soybean Association (MSA), a nonprofit corporation comprised of Missouri soybean farmers and persons in soybean farming-related activities, sued the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Clean Water Act (CWA), 33' U.S.C. § 1365(a)(2) (1994), and the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 551-559, 701-706 (2000). MSA contends the EPA should have disapproved Missouri’s 1998 list of pollution-impaired waters because some of the listed waters lacked documentation of pollution. MSA’s suit was consolidated .with the Sierra Club, Ozark Chapter’s and the American Canoe Association, Inc.’s (environmental plaintiffs) earlier lawsuit also challenging the EPA’s approval of Missouri’s 1998 list. The environmental plaintiffs, however, claimed that Missouri’s list was underinclusive.

The Clean Water Act requires states to identify and prioritize those waters within the state’s boundaries that despite the use of technical controls for pollution do not meet the state’s water quality standards. See 33 U.S.C. § 1313(d) (1994). States are to “assemble and consider all existing and readily available water quality-related data and information” when preparing the list of impaired waters within the state. 40 C.F.R. § 130.22 (2001). The list of impaired waters, known as the § 303(d) list, is then submitted to the EPA for approval. Once the EPA approves the list, the impaired waters undergo scientific study to establish the total maximum daily load (TMDL) of specifically identified pollutants that may be released without violating state water quality standards. See also Sierra Club, North Star Chapter v. Browner, 843 F.Supp. 1304, 1306-07 (D.Minn.1993) (describing TMDL process). States may then use a variety of regulatory techniques to implement the TMDL standards.

In preparing its 1998 list, Missouri divided waters into three categories. Category one waters were found to be impaired and scheduled for full TMDL development. Category two waters were scheduled for further monitoring because the water quality data was “older or of lesser quality.” If additional monitoring confirmed the water’s impairment, full TMDL development would proceed. Category three waters were recognized as impaired, but no practical remedy was available because the polluting conditions resulted from naturally occurring minerals, nutrients, or sediment. Missouri’s list excluded the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers (the big rivers) because “there are no water quality contaminant violations.” The EPA added several waters to Missouri’s list and found the waters in all three categories impaired, requiring TMDL development. The Missouri Clean Water Commission then added the big rivers to Missouri’s § 303(d) list, claiming the pollutant was “habitat loss” occurring because of “channelization.” The EPA approved Missouri’s revised list.

MSA claims the EPA should have disapproved Missouri’s § 303(d) list because the category two waters and the big rivers lacked the required documentation of pollution to be listed as impaired. In its complaint, MSA claims the premature listing of the challenged waters injures its members through potential changes in land management practices, limitations on crop growth and rotation, limitations on sale and use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, decreases in property values, increases in farming costs, and the inability to plan for and rely on the use of certain waters and land caused by Clean Water Act requirements. The EPA and the environmental plaintiffs settled their dispute [512]*512through a consent decree approved by the district court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
289 F.3d 509, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-soybean-assn-v-united-states-environmental-protection-agency-ca8-2002.