Roll Coater, Inc. v. William K. Reilly, Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency

932 F.2d 668, 21 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 21116, 33 ERC (BNA) 1313, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 9876, 1991 WL 78358
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMay 16, 1991
Docket90-2152, 90-3856
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 932 F.2d 668 (Roll Coater, Inc. v. William K. Reilly, Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Roll Coater, Inc. v. William K. Reilly, Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency, 932 F.2d 668, 21 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 21116, 33 ERC (BNA) 1313, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 9876, 1991 WL 78358 (7th Cir. 1991).

Opinion

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

Amendments to the Clean Water Act in 1987 require states to identify stretches of water that are out of compliance with targets for levels of toxic substances. Section 304(i) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1314(Z). States must place the waters on the “B list” and the sources responsible for the problem on the “C list”. (These appellations come from § 304(Z)(1)(B) and (C).) States must devise for each source “individual control strategies” (ICSs) calculated to bring about compliance with the targets within three years of the strategies’ adoption. If the EPA rejects the states’ lists or strategies, it must establish its own. See generally Westvaco Corp. v. EPA, 899 F.2d 1383 (4th Cir.1990).

Indiana concluded that a segment of Travis Ditch in Kingsbury exceeds the target levels of some toxic substances, and that Roll Coater, Inc., is responsible for part of the excess. It submitted to the EPA a B list including Travis Ditch, a C list including Roll Coater, and an ICS for Roll Coa-ter. Under the EPA’s regulations, an ICS takes the form of a draft modified permit for discharges. 40 C.F.R. § 123.46(c). The ICS is not the same as a new permit, however. After the EPA approves the ICS, the state must modify the permit using its own processes.

Roll Coater, which paints and coats steel coils, protested Indiana’s inclusion of Travis Ditch on the B list. It contended that the levels of the toxic substances (copper, lead, and zinc) had not been measured correctly. If Roll Coater is right, then Indiana need not modify its permit — and Roll Coa-ter need not make costly alterations to reduce its emissions of these metals. In January 1990 the Chief of the EPA’s Regional Water Quality Branch sent Roll Coa-ter a letter disagreeing with its position. Roll Coater filed a petition, No. 90-2152, to review this letter. This petition is premature. American Paper Institute, Inc. v. EPA, 882 F.2d 287 (7th Cir.1989). The letter is not the EPA’s final action, which came in September, when it approved Indiana’s inclusion of Travis Ditch on the B list and Roll Coater on the C list. It also *670 approved the ICS Indiana had devised for Roll Coater. 55 Fed.Reg. 36309, 36313 (Sept. 5, 1990). The EPA asks us to dismiss Roll Coater’s petition, No. 90-3856, to review its final decisions.

At the same time as it enacted § 304(i), Congress added a subsection to the Clean Water Act’s judicial-review provision. The new § 509(b)(1)(G), 33 U.S.C. § 1369(b)(1)(G), provides that review of the Administrator’s action “in promulgating any individual control strategy under § 304(i) may be had by any interested person in the Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States for the Federal judicial district in which such person resides or transacts business which is directly affected by such action”. Roll Coater contends that the EPA’s approval of the ICS Indiana submitted is an order “promulgating” an ICS, reviewable under § 509(b)(1)(G). It asks us to disapprove P.H. Glatfelter Co. v. EPA, 921 F.2d 516 (4th Cir.1990), whose distinction between orders “approving” a state’s submissions and orders “promulgating” plans of the EPA’s own devising would require us to dismiss its petition. The EPA submits that an order approving a state’s proposed ICS is not reviewable. Last year it expressed a distinctly contrary view, 55 Fed.Reg. 26201-02 (June 27, 1990), which it has abandoned in light of Glatfelter.

Section 304(1) gives the EPA four options: (1) the EPA may approve the state’s lists; (2) the EPA may disapprove the state’s lists (or any portion of them) and adopt its own lists under § 304(1 )(3); (3) the EPA may approve the state’s ICSs; (4) the EPA may disapprove one or more of the state’s ICSs and issue its own, again under § 304(i )(3). It must do at least two of these following a state’s submission. It may, for example, (1) approve the state’s lists and (3) approve the state’s ICSs, as in our case. The EPA also could (2) disapprove the state’s lists and write its own, following which it would (4) adopt its own ICSs. Other combinations are possible. In Glatfelter the EPA (2) disapproved the state’s lists, but (3) approved the state’s ICSs. The fourth circuit held that neither action is reviewable under § 509(b)(1)(G). The EPA contends that only action (4) is reviewable. Roll Coater contends that all four actions may be reviewed under § 509(b)(1)(G).

Section 304(i) requires states to devise both lists and strategies. Section 509(b)(1)(G) allows review of the EPA’s orders promulgating “individual control strategies”. This means that § 509(b)(1)(G) does not authorize review of action (1) or (2), approving a state’s lists or creating its own. Whether § 509(b)(1)(G) authorizes review of an order approving ICSs of the state’s creation depends on what it means for the EPA to “promulgate” an ICS. Roll Coater believes that to approve an ICS and publish that action in the Federal Register is to “promulgate” that ICS. American Paper Institute, 882 F.2d at 288-89, treats promulgation as issuing a document with legal effect. Cf. United Technologies Corp. v. OSHA, 836 F.2d 52, 54 (2d Cir.1987). The EPA contends that the statute distinguishes between approving a state’s ICS under § 304(i)(2) and' promulgating (that is, devising and issuing) a federal ICS under § 304(Z)(3).

“Promulgate” could mean either thing. Other subsections of § 509(b)(1) clarify its meaning. Subsection (E) authorizes review of a decision “approving or promulgating any effluent limitation” under certain sections, the very distinction the EPA asks us to draw under subsection (G). Other subsections reinforce this reading. Subsections (B) and (D) create jurisdiction to review “any determination pursuant to” a named statute. Three more subsections— (A) and (C), in addition to (G) — limit review to the EPA’s action in “promulgating” something. Subsection (A) refers to a “standard of performance” under § 306, 33 U.S.C. § 1316, and subsection (C) to an “effluent standard, prohibition, or pretreatment standard” under § 307, 33 U.S.C. § 1317. All of the items in (A) and (C) are things the Administrator does on his own. Subsections (B) and (D) treat “determinations” as something different from promulgation, implying that the EPA does not “promulgate” everything it issues or approves. Words sometimes change meaning *671 in mid-section-for statutes are cobbled together by different persons at different times, and the United States lacks an institution such as France's Conseil d'Etat that reviews statutes for consistency and technical correctness.

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932 F.2d 668, 21 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 21116, 33 ERC (BNA) 1313, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 9876, 1991 WL 78358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roll-coater-inc-v-william-k-reilly-administrator-united-states-ca7-1991.