Sierra Club v. Korleski

716 F. Supp. 2d 699, 40 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20034, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63303, 2010 WL 2302378
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedFebruary 2, 2010
DocketCivil Action 2:08-cv-865
StatusPublished

This text of 716 F. Supp. 2d 699 (Sierra Club v. Korleski) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sierra Club v. Korleski, 716 F. Supp. 2d 699, 40 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20034, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63303, 2010 WL 2302378 (S.D. Ohio 2010).

Opinion

ORDER

MARK R. ABEL, United States Magistrate Judge.

On July 29, 2009, 654 F.Supp.2d 722 (S.D.Ohio 2009), the Court denied plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment. See doc. 55. The Order held that 42 U.S.C. § 7604(a)(1) does not authorize citizen suits against the state as a regulator who failed to enforce the Clear Air Act. This matter is before the Court on plaintiffs’ September 23, 2009 motion for reconsideration and reversal of the interlocutory order denying plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment on count one (doc. 64).

I. Allegations in the Complaint

This action is brought under the Federal Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7401, et seq. The complaint makes the following allegations. In November 2006, the Ohio EPA adopted revised Ohio Adm.Code § 3745-31-05, which exempts all sources that produce less than 10 tons per year of any National Ambient Air Quality Standards (“NAAQS”) pollutant or pre-cursor from Ohio’s State Implementation Plan (“SIP”) requirement that all sources of air contaminants employ the best available technology (“BAT”) to reduce air emissions. The Ohio EPA began enforcing the new BAT exemption effective December 1, 2006, but *701 failed to submit a SIP revision to U.S. EPA within 60 days after the BAT exemptions adoption. It did not submit revised Ohio Adm.Code § 3745-31-05 to the U.S. EPA for approval until January 18, 2008. In June 2008, U.S. EPA advised Ohio EPA that the January 2008 submission was incomplete and could not be processed. Ohio EPA continues to enforce the BAT exemption.

The complaint pleads the following causes of action: (1) Ohio EPA’s adoption and enforcement of Ohio Adm.Code § 3745-31-05, which contains less stringent requirements than Ohio’s SIP violates 42 U.S.C. §§ 7410 and 7416; (2) the BAT exemption violates the anti-backsliding provisions of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 7410(a) and 7515; (3) Ohio EPA’s failure to timely request a modification of its SIP violated the Clean Air Act’s notice and opportunity to be heard provisions, 42 U.S.C. § 7410(1), 40 C.F.R. §§ 51.102 and 51.104; and (4) Ohio EPA failed to satisfy the requirement of 40 C.F.R. Part 51, Appendix that it submit “technical support” for modification of its SIP.

II. Question for Decision

Section 7604(a)(1)(A) authorizes citizens’ suits “against any person (including (i) the United States, and (ii) any other governmental instrumentality or agency ... who is alleged to have violated ... an emission standard.... ” The category of persons who can be sued under the subsection are anyone who violated an emission standard. The July 29, 2009 Order held that § 7604(a)(1)(A) authorizes citizen suits against a state or local government only as polluters who violate an emission standard, not as regulators who fail to enforce an emission standard. Plaintiffs’ motion to reconsider argues that the Court erred in rejecting their reading that § 7604(a)(1)(A) permits citizen suits against state regulators for failing to enforce an emission standard or limitation. They assert that SIP commitments are emission standards or limitations. Plaintiffs argue that properly read, § 7604(a)(1)(A) permits a citizen suit against a state government regulator who violates (breaches) a SIP commitment by failing to enforce it.

My decision relied on the reading of § 7604(a)(1)(A) in Citizens Association of Georgetown v. Washington, 535 F.2d 1318, 1320-22 (D.C.Cir.1976). It rejected the argument that the 1977 amendments to the Act, which added § 7604(f)(4) that defined the term “emission standard or limitation,” changed how § 7604(a)(1) should be read. The July 29 decision asserted that the ordinary and natural meaning of “violate!] an emission standard” did not include an agency’s violation of its duty to enforce an emission standard, that only a polluter “violates” an emissions standard. The legislative history of § 7604(a)(1)(A) lends support to that reading. The decision further argued that the structure of the Act supported that interpretation because it ensures that states meet their obligation to enforce SIPs and other provisions of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7410(a)(2)(E), by giving the U.S. EPA Administrator the power to sanction a State for noncompliance. 42 U.S.C. § 7509(a)(4). Finally, the decision asserted that the reading was consistent with § 7604(a)(2), which authorizes citizen suits against the U.S. EPA Administrator for “failure ... to perform any act or duty under this chapter which is not discretionary with the Administrator.... ” Had Congress wanted to permit citizen suits against state regulators for violating a duty to enforce the Act, it would have included state agencies in § 7604(a)(2).

The July 29 decision recognized that no other court has ever followed Citizens Association of Georgetown and that many decision have assumed that § 7604(a)(1)(A) *702 permits citizen suits against governmental regulators who fail to enforce emission standards. Plaintiffs’ motion to reconsider argues that the U.S. EPA has consistently interpreted § 7604(a)(1)(A) to permit citizen suits against governmental regulators who fail to enforce emission standards. They assert that the plain language of § 7604(a)(1)(A) permits suits against any person who violates an emission standard or limitation and the case law includes within the term emission standard or limitation commitments that states make in their SIPs. They argue that the restrictive construction in the July 29 decision is contrary to the U.S. EPA’s reading of § 7604(a)(1)(A) and not warranted by the case law and legislative history.

III. Arguments of the Parties

A. Plaintiffs Sierra Club, Michael Sinclair, Theresa Cole, and Josephine Cole

Plaintiffs maintain that for over 30 years, the Director made a commitment in the Ohio SIP to use the BAT program for Ohio’s air pollution sources. The United States EPA found the BAT program to be integral to Ohio’s SIP.

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716 F. Supp. 2d 699, 40 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20034, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63303, 2010 WL 2302378, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sierra-club-v-korleski-ohsd-2010.