Opinion ID: 187482
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: State Water Quality Certification

Text: First, the petitioners contend FERC issued the Surrender Order based on an invalid section 401 certification issued by the North Carolina Division of Water Quality (NCDWQ). Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA), 33 U.S.C. § 1341, requires that an applicant for a Federal license or permit to conduct any activity ... which may result in any discharge into the navigable waters, shall provide the licensing or permitting agency a certification from the State in which the discharge originates or will originate, that any such discharge will comply with the applicable provisions of [33 U.S.C.] sections 1311, 1312, 1313, 1316, and 1317. 33 U.S.C. § 1341(a)(1). [4] Section 401 further directs that each State must establish procedures for public notice in the case of all applications for certification by it and, to the extent it deems appropriate, procedures for public hearings in connection with specific applications, 33 U.S.C. § 1341(a)(1)a provision we have interpreted to also require[ ] states to comply with their public notice procedures, and therefore [to] require[] FERC to obtain some minimal confirmation of such compliance, at least in a case where compliance has been called into question. City of Tacoma, Wash. v. FERC, 460 F.3d 53, 68 (D.C.Cir.2006). North Carolina has established a certification procedure which generally requires notice by publication in a local newspaper of each pending application for an individual certification at least 15 days before NCDWQ final action and not more than 20 days after the application is accepted. 15A N.C. Admin. Code § 2H.0503(a). [5] Duke applied for section 401 certification as required but NCDWQ apparently failed to publish the required notice of the application. Jackson County argues, as it did on rehearing, that the lack of notice rendered the 2005 certification invalid. We disagree. Duke filed its Application for 401 Water Quality Certification for License Surrender with NCDWQ, attached to a cover letter dated March 11, 2005. Duke filed copies of the application with FERC on March 17, 2005 and on March 28, 2005, mailed copies of the cover letterstamped as received by NCDWQ on March 17, 2005to FERC and to all parties to the FERC surrender proceeding, including Jackson County. See Letter from Garry S. Rice, Duke Associate General Counsel to FERC, Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, Project Nos. P-2602-005, -007 (Mar. 29, 2005); Pet'rs' Br. 30 n. 23 (acknowledging Jackson County was served with stamped copy on March 29, 2005). Thus, Jackson County had timely actual notice of the state certification application upon its receipt of same and the purpose of section 401's notice by publication requirement was thereby fulfilled. Accordingly, we conclude that NCDWQ's failure to comply with the statutory notice requirement was harmless. Cf. Nat'l Mining Ass'n v. Mine Safety & Health Admin., 116 F.3d 520, 531 (D.C.Cir.1997) (`[E]ven if [an] agency has not given notice in the statutorily prescribed fashion, actual notice will render the error harmless.' (quoting Small Refiner Lead Phase-Down Task Force v. EPA, 705 F.2d 506, 549 (D.C.Cir.1983))) (first alteration added); Nat'l Ass'n of Home Builders v. Defenders of Wildlife, 551 U.S. 644, 659-60, 127 S.Ct. 2518, 168 L.Ed.2d 467 (2007) (`In administrative law, as in federal and criminal litigation, there is a harmless error rule.' (quoting PDK Labs., Inc. v. U.S. Drug Enforcement Admin., 362 F.3d 786, 799 (D.C.Cir. 2004))). [6]