Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/99-5295/99-5295a-2011-03-24.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 17:59:34+00:00

Document:
Reuben A. Guttman argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs were Daniel Guttman, Brian P. McCaffer- ty, Charles V. Firth and Traci L. Buschner.
Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Depart- ment of Justice, and Evelyn S. Ying, Attorney.
Williams, Circuit Judge: In 1997 the Department of Ener- gy ("DOE") contracted to decontaminate and decommission three buildings at its nuclear weapons facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Interna- tional Union, AFL-CIO ("OCAW"), a labor union whose members work at this facility, brought suit seeking to enjoin execution of the contract. (Also suing were several of the union's individual members, who will henceforth be disregard- ed.) OCAW's theories are twofold. First, it claims that DOE and its contractors violated s 3161 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1993, 42 U.S.C. s 7274h, which it reads as requiring DOE to provide its members continued employment and employment benefits after the implementation of a major workforce restructuring. Second, it argues that under s 102(2)(c) of the National Environmen- tal Policy Act ("NEPA"), 42 U.S.C. s 4332(2)(C) the recycling and sale of recovered metals from the project cannot proceed unless an environmental impact statement is first prepared. The district court granted defendants' motion to dismiss on the first claim, Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Int'l Union, AFL-CIO v. PeNa, 18 F. Supp. 2d 6, 16 (D.D.C. 1998) ("OCAW I"), and their motion for summary judgment on the second. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Int'l Union, AFL-CIO v. PeNa, 62 F. Supp. 2d 1, 2 (D.D.C. 1999) ("OCAW II").
barred by the preclusion of review in 5 U.S.C. s 701(a)(2). See Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821 (1985). As to the NEPA claim, s 113(h) of the Comprehensive Environmental Re- sponse, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 ("CERCLA"), 42 U.S.C. s 9613(h), withholds federal court jurisdiction (subject to irrelevant exceptions) over any "chal- lenges to removal or remedial action selected under section  of this title." Because the recycling activity provided for in the contracts clearly qualifies as such a "removal" action, we have no jurisdiction over the NEPA claim. Ac- cordingly, we affirm.
For many years the Oak Ridge Reservation was used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and nuclear power gen- eration. In 1989 EPA placed it on the National Priority List of contaminated sites. OCAW II, 62 F. Supp. 2d at 2. Later, acting under CERCLA s 120, 42 U.S.C. s 9620, EPA, DOE, and the Tennessee Department of Education and Conserva- tion entered into a Federal Facilities Agreement ("FFA") for Oak Ridge, thereby scheduling the facility "for decontamina- tion and decommissioning, waste management, and environ- mental remediation." In March 1997 they amended the FFA to include a schedule for the cleanup of three buildings at Oak Ridge's K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the cleanup in dispute here. In August 1997 DOE awarded a contract to British Nuclear Fuels, Inc. ("BNFL") to remove the equipment and decontaminate the buildings. We turn first to the s 3161 issue, then to NEPA.
instance, that hiring preferences would be provided to eligible employees "to the extent practicable." Oak Ridge Operations Work Force Restructuring Plan, at 5-1 (November 29, 1995). The WRP also provided for medical benefits, outplacement assistance, relocation assistance, training programs, and edu- cation assistance. Id. at 4-1 to 5-2.
The contract with BNFL effectively delegated to it the fulfillment of the WRP's mandates. DOE/BNFL Contract, at H-9 to H-10. BNFL then negotiated a Project Labor Agreement ("PLA") with Knoxville Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO ("Building Trades"), to address how the construction workers for the project would be hired. The PLA incorporated the hiring preference embodied in the WRP: "[T]he Union shall recognize and select qualified appli- cants for referral in accordance with Section 3161 ... and/or the Employer's contractual obligation to [DOE] relating to 3161." Project Agreement Between BNFL Inc. and Building Trades (August 7, 1997), at 6.
cretion," the district court held that s 3161 fell within Cha- ney's bar. OCAW I, 18 F. Supp. 2d at 15-16.
In view of OCAW's present exclusive focus on enforcement of the BNFL contract, we need not finally resolve whether for every context the statute's language reaches Chaney levels of discretion. Section 3161 requires the Secretary of Energy to "develop a plan for restructuring the workforce," and the Secretary did so through the WRP, which incorporat- ed the further mandates of s 3161. DOE then delegated the statutory requirements in its contract with BNFL, which were in turn subdelegated in part to Building Trades. Be- cause DOE satisfied its requirement to develop a plan, OCAW can now complain only of inadequate contract enforce- ment. It thereby brings its cause squarely within Heckler v. Chaney's presumption of unreviewability for enforcement de- cisions: "[A]n agency's decision not to prosecute or enforce, whether through civil or criminal process, is a decision gener- ally committed to an agency's absolute discretion." 470 U.S. at 831. The Court justified this presumption on several grounds. First, the agency has expertise in assessing wheth- er a violation has occurred and whether it is a valuable use of the agency's resources to commence enforcement proceed- ings. Second, "when an agency refuses to act it generally does not exercise its coercive power over an individual's liberty or property rights, and thus does not infringe upon areas that courts are often called upon to protect." Id. at 832.
Although Chaney did not explicitly address contract en- forcement, it seems indistinguishable from civil enforcement activities in the dimensions relevant to Chaney; certainly OCAW offers no distinctions. Nor does the statute contain any guidance on the Secretary's exercise of enforcement power, such as might rebut the presumption. See id. at 833. Nor, finally, can we find any such limits in DOE's Notice of Interim Planning Guidance, Planning Guidance for Contrac- tor Work Force Restructuring, 61 Fed. Reg. 8593, 8595/2, 8599/2 (1996), to which OCAW points in a search for the needed non-discretionary backbone. Of course our decision here says nothing about the possible ability of plaintiffs to sue as third-party beneficiaries of the BNFL contract or the PLA.
We thus turn to the NEPA claim. CERCLA s 113(h), 42 U.S.C. s 9613(h), says that "[n]o Federal court shall have jurisdiction under Federal law ... to review any challenges to removal or remedial action selected under section  of this title, or to review any order issued under section  of this title." Although s 113(h) is subject to limited excep- tions--e.g., for recovery of "response costs or damages or for contribution," 42 U.S.C. s 9613(h)(1), and for reimbursement of costs in response to a remedial order that was arbitrary and capricious, id. s 9613(h)(3)--it otherwise effectuates a "blunt withdrawal of federal jurisdiction," North Shore Gas Co. v. EPA, 930 F.2d 1239, 1244 (7th Cir. 1991), despite its more limited rationale "that pre-enforcement review would be a significant obstacle to the implementation of response ac- tions and the use of administrative orders." S. Rep. No. 11, 99th Cong. 1, 58 (1985).
the cleanup or removal of released hazardous substances from the environment, such actions as may be necessary [sic] taken in the event of the threat of release of hazardous substances into the environment, ... the dis- posal of removed material, or the taking of such other actions as may be necessary to prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage to the public health or welfare or to the environment.... OCAW correctly points out that recycling is not explicitly mentioned here, though it is in the definition of "remedial action." 42 U.S.C. s 9601(24). But we agree with the dis- trict court that the broader language of s 9601(23), "disposal of removed material," is properly understood to encompass disposals that take the form of recycling. OCAW II, 62 F. Supp. 2d at 6 n.5. Moreover, because "remedial actions" are also protected by s 113(h), OCAW's argument would prove pointless here, unless, for some unmentioned reason, DOE's having said "removal" when it should have said "reme- dial action" were fatal to its invocation of s 113(h).
action," largely because the decision to recycle is left to the sole discretion of BNFL. Relying on the language of DOE's Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (comparing the alter- natives for addressing contamination at the K-25 facility), however, the district court found that despite the allowance of discretion, DOE and BNFL expressed a strong preference for recycling. Because recycling was the "primary method of waste disposal" contemplated by the parties, it was part of the "removal action" for purposes of s 113(h). OCAW II, 62 F. Supp. 2d at 6. Moreover, other documents "mad[e] abun- dantly clear that BNFL is absolutely required to dispose of all waste whether by recycling or otherwise," id. at 7, and such other "disposal of removed material" is explicitly within the definition of a removal action. See 42 U.S.C. s 9601(23).
The second argument alone is decisive. As both options under the plan qualified as actions sheltered by s 113(h), the case requires no theorizing as to whether the section might apply to a non-sheltered practice that was somehow part of an action otherwise protected by s 113(h). OCAW's claims here are insubstantial.

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