Opinion ID: 61690
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ECO's citizen suit is moot

Text: We now consider whether ECO can satisfy its burden to show a realistic prospect that the CWA violations alleged in its citizen suit will continue notwithstanding the consent decree. The district court found that the consent decree resolved every violation alleged in the ECO citizen suit. Envtl. Conservation Org., 516 F.Supp.2d at 659 & n. 6. ECO argues that evidence in the record shows that the City is engaging and will continue to engage in violations of its MS4 Permit and the CWA. ECO relies primarily on an affidavit submitted by Craig T. Maske, a civil engineer with an expertise in water resources whom ECO retained as an expert. Mr. Maske's affidavit, sworn on November 10, 2006, details various past violations by the City and offers his opinion that these violations will continue. However, Mr. Maske does not mention the consent decree in his affidavit, nor does he offer an explicit opinion that the consent decree will not adequately address the violations discussed therein. Therefore, Mr. Maske's affidavit does not address the critical fact in our mootness inquiry. Other evidence is said to be found in the depositions of several City employees. This testimony, given in April and May 2006, provides evidence solely of past violations by the City. No employee mentions the consent decree or offers any prediction as to whether the decree will address the relevant violations. ECO asks us to infer from the City's distinct track record of failing to comply with CWA requirements that these violations will continue and suggests that there is authority for drawing such an inference on summary judgment. See Orange Env't, Inc. v. County of Orange, 860 F.Supp. 1003, 1019 (S.D.N.Y.1994). Such an inference requires that the polluter have a poor track record for complying with [state agency] compliance orders.... Id. The only compliance order entered against the City is the one that is the focus of this appeal. We refuse to draw the inference that the Orange court drew under such dissimilar circumstances. After reviewing the consent decree and comparing it to ECO's complaint, we agree with the district court that it addresses every MS4 Permit and CWA violation alleged in ECO's citizen suit. ECO has not pointed to specific facts on appeal that would support an inference that the City will continue to engage in violations that were alleged in ECO's citizen suit but not addressed by the consent decree. See Sedgwick James, 276 F.3d at 759 (Conclusional allegations and denials, speculation, improbable inferences, unsubstantiated assertions, and legalistic argumentation do not adequately substitute for specific facts showing a genuine issue for trial.). For these reasons, ECO cannot show a realistic prospect that any of the violations alleged in its citizen suit will continue notwithstanding the consent decree. As we explain below, ECO's claims for both injunctive relief and civil penalties are moot.
The consent decree requires the City to take steps to correct the planning, staffing, monitoring, and compliance deficiencies that resulted in the violations alleged in ECO's suit. ECO argues there is no mootness as to injunctive relief because the immediate cessation of all violations has not been ordered. Even had ECO prevailed on its citizen suit, the district court was not bound to order the immediate cessation of all violations. Traditional equitable principles control the decision to enter an injunction, under which the court has broad discretion to balance the interests of the parties. 11A CHARLES ALAN WRIGHT, ARTHUR R. MILLER & MARY KAY LANE, FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 2942 (2d ed.1990). The district court might even have denied injunctive relief altogether. See Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. 305, 314-20, 102 S.Ct. 1798, 72 L.Ed.2d 91 (1982). But even if some form of injunctive relief were ordered, the district court might have denied ECO's request for immediate relief if the more practical solution was a permanent injunction that mandated a cessation of violations over a period of time. See e.g., Reserve Mining Co. v. EPA, 514 F.2d 492, 537-40 (8th Cir.1975); N.Y. Coastal Fishermen's Ass'n v. N.Y.C. Dep't of Sanitation, 772 F.Supp. 162, 169-70 (S.D.N.Y. 1991). We also note the practical difficulty of enforcing an immediate cessation of violations that occur, in large part, due to rainfall over the City. Thus, as applied to this case, the realistic prospect test considers whether violations will continue in the sense that the violations will not be cured even after the remedial plan imposed by the consent decree has been fully implemented in accordance with reasonable timetables. [5] The consent decree achieved some court-ordered mandatory relief that is injunctive in nature. Because ECO is not entitled to any particular form of injunctive relief under the CWA  and, therefore, was not guaranteed to achieve any other form of relief in its citizen suit than that imposed under the consent decree  its claims for injunctive relief are moot.
There is some authority that even where a defendant's voluntary acts of compliance are sufficient to moot a citizen's request for injunctive relief, those voluntary acts will not necessarily moot a related claim for civil penalties. Comfort Lake, 138 F.3d at 356; Carr, 931 F.2d at 1065 n. 9. This is not a case of voluntary compliance. This appeal requires us to determine whether acts of compliance that have been compelled by an EPA-negotiated consent decree can moot a citizen's claim for civil penalties. First, it is significant that the consent decree imposed $800,000 in civil penalties on the City. This does not represent the maximum penalty permissible under the statute. See 33 U.S.C. § 1319(d). However, even in the event of a successful citizen suit, the district court is not bound to impose the maximum penalty afforded under the statute. In fact, the district court is required to consider a myriad of factors, some of which are mitigating in nature, when determining the appropriate civil penalty under the CWA. § 1319(d); see Cedar Point, 73 F.3d at 576 (district court did not abuse its discretion by imposing $186,070 civil penalty even though maximum permissible penalty was $20,225,000). Thus, the penalties imposed by the consent decree are arguably the same penalties that ECO could have achieved in a successful citizen suit. More importantly, ECO assumed the role of private attorney general in the pursuit of its citizen suit. Any penalty that it achieved would have been paid into the United States Treasury. After ECO initiated its citizen suit, the United States government initiated its own enforcement action and extracted some civil penalties from the City. The resulting consent decree (approved by the U.S. Department of Justice) represents the federal government's discretionary resolution of the level of penalty needed for the same environmental concerns raised by ECO. A private attorney general is no longer needed to raise the issue of the proper civil penalty. That ECO might have sought stiffer penalties against the City does not change the result; ECO is not permitted to upset the primary enforcement role of the EPA by seeking civil penalties that the Administrator chose to forego.... Gwaltney, 484 U.S. at 61, 108 S.Ct. 376. The appropriate government agencies have exercised their discretion to extract some penalties from the City and forego others. By proceeding with its citizen suit, ECO could accomplish nothing other than to revisit the government's dispositive administrative settlement. Eastman Kodak, 933 F.2d at 127; compare Atlantic States Legal Found. v. Pan Am. Tanning, 993 F.2d 1017, 1022 (2d Cir.1993) (distinguishing Eastman Kodak where settlement did not cover all of the violations plaintiffs allege[d] and assessed small fines of only $6,600). For these reasons, ECO's claim for civil penalties is moot.