Opinion ID: 785093
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Consistency with a prior regulatory regime

Text: 87 Finally, MISC argues that the below-threshold, state-law, and re-permitting aspects of the Rule, all of which require case-by-case determinations, are inexplicably inconsistent with the EPA's other, older regulations, which make no mention of intake structures. See, e.g., 40 C.F.R. §§ 125.3(c)(2), 122.44. MISC's argument seems to be that because the EPA has not heretofore regulated intake structures on a case-by-case basis as a condition of granting NPDES permits, it cannot begin doing so now without an explanation. But the EPA has required at least some intake structures to reflect the best technology available to them. See, e.g., Seacoast Anti-Pollution League v. Costle, 597 F.2d 306, 311 (1st Cir.1979); 66 Fed.Reg. at 65,262 col. 1 (describing case-by-case regulation that has existed in the absence of the Rule pursuant to draft guidance). That the EPA has not formalized its approach until the promulgation of this Rule (and may have revised it) seems irrelevant, because rulemaking is the very process by which the Agency gives an explanation for the rules as it wishes to enforce them.