Opinion ID: 544587
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Analysis of EPA Decision to List Six Wastes

Text: 44 Applying these well-worn standards to the agency's decision in the 1988 Rule to relist the six wastes, we get mixed results. We conclude that regarding some of the six wastes, the agency met its obligation to engage in reasoned decisionmaking. Regarding others, however, the agency has not lived up to that duty, particularly because the 1980 data and reports on which the 1988 Rule exclusively relies do not adequately address petitioners' significant challenges. In their briefs to this court, agency counsel sometimes invoke post-1980 studies to support EPA's judgment in the 1988 Rule. However, we cannot accept post-hoc rationalizations that the agency did not offer in the 1988 Rule itself. See State Farm, 463 U.S. at 50, 103 S.Ct. at 2870 (post-hoc rationalizations by counsel cannot cure deficiencies in agency decisionmaking); National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides v. Thomas, 809 F.2d 875, 882-83 (D.C.Cir.1987) (same). 45
46 Petitioners offer several arguments to challenge the agency's listing of K066. They argue that the record does not support EPA's conclusion that K066 contains significant concentrations of cadmium and lead, and that, even under mild conditions, the possibility of ground water contaminated via leaching may exist if these wastes are mismanaged. 1988 Rule, 53 Fed.Reg. at 35,416. They also contend that EPA's most recent test results demonstrate that the quantities of cadmium and lead that might leach from K066 are so small that the potential for groundwater contamination is insignificant. See Final Brief for Consolidated Petitioners at 36. Additionally, they assert that, in 1977, the only K066 material tested (acid plant blowdown sludge) showed cadmium levels below EPA's primary drinking water standard for cadmium and lead levels less than 50 times the applicable drinking water standard. See id. at 36-37; see also 1977 Non-Ferrous Assessments, reprinted in J.A. 287 (showing distilled water extraction test results of 47 In the 1988 Rule, EPA stated that it relisted the six wastes as hazardous for the reasons set forth in the May 19 and July 16, 1980 listings and the associated Listing Background Documents. See 1988 Rule, 53 Fed.Reg. 35,413-13, 35-417. EPA concluded that no data were submitted that would clearly contradict EPA's 1980 decision to list the six smelter wastes, i.e., no data were available to refute the basic conclusion that these wastes contain significant concentrations of toxic constituents and that the constituents are mobile and persistent. See id. at 35,417. However, EPA did not specifically mention any post-1980 studies in the 1988 Rule. It provided only the summary statement that Cadmium and lead have been shown to leach from samples of these wastes when the samples were subjected to a distilled water extraction procedure. See id. at 35,416. Instead of discussing post-1980 data, the agency cited only the 1980 Listing Background Document for Primary Zinc Smelting and Refining as further explanation for its determination. See id. EPA does not respond to the challenges petitioners raise concerning the 1977 studies. In short, there is no adequate explanation in the 1988 Rule for the listing of K066. Even in the brief to this court, EPA merely states that samples of zinc acid plant blowdown sludge contained 2,000 ppm cadmium and 18,100 ppm lead, and concludes that these constituents had the potential for leaching. See Brief for the Respondent at 30 (citing 1980 Zinc Background Document, reprinted in J.A. 183). Such conclusory statements are not sufficient to address petitioners' challenges concerning particular studies. Accordingly, we must remand to the agency for a fuller explanation of its decision to list K066. 48
49 Petitioners claim that EPA did not obtain representative samples of each of the types of K064 materials and that therefore the results do not support the K064 listing. They argue that the 1977 distilled water extraction test used by EPA resulted in an extract containing 8.4 ppm cadmium and 7.8 ppm lead. See Final Brief of Consolidated Petitioners at 41. EPA failed to adequately address this challenge in the record. In the 1988 Rule, the agency offered no discussion of the studies upon which it relied, and provided no explanation of why its conclusion would be reasonable even absent such studies. It is, of course, the agency's, not the advocate's explanation to which we owe deference, and for that we must turn to the record. As with the explanation for listing K066, we find there only conclusory statements that do not respond to the petitioner's challenges in any coherent manner. See, e.g., 1988 Rule, 53 Fed.Reg. at 35,414; 1980 Copper Background Document, reprinted in J.A. 134-50. As with K066, we must remand for fuller explanation of the decision to list. 50
51 Petitioners claim that the administrative record is devoid of factual support for EPA's decision to list K065 as hazardous. According to petitioners, EPA's draft report, Analysis of Human Health Risks Associated with the Management of Hazardous Wastes from the Primary Smelting and Refining Industries, reprinted in J.A. 874, concluded that there is no significant risk from wastewater treatment sludges from primary lead facilities. Petitioners contend that the data base consisting of wastewater analyses before and after treatment and of single samples of impoundment dredgings from two unidentified locations is too limited to support EPA's conclusion. See Final Brief for Consolidated Petitioners at 44. They also argue that the samples were taken from lagoon dredgings (slag granulation) and do not represent the spectrum of materials listed as K065, which includes acid plant blowdown, slag granulation water and plant washdown. See id. at 44-45. Additionally, they challenge the solubility test procedure employed. See id. at 47. 52 EPA's decision to list K065 is based on a finding that K065 contains lead and cadmium in significant concentrations, and that lead and cadmium have been shown to leach from [K065 samples] using an extraction procedure designed to predict the release of contaminants into the environment. 1988 Rule, 53 Fed.Reg. at 35,414. EPA counsel contends that [petitioners'] arguments completely ignore all of the data collected in 1984 and subsequently which support the 1980 determination to list the waste and therefore are without merit. Brief for the Respondent at 37. The 1988 Rule, however, does not discuss any 1984 or subsequent data. Indeed, neither the 1988 Rule nor the 1980 Lead Background Document, to which the 1988 Rule refers, addresses petitioners' challenges. See, e.g., 1988 Rule, 53 Fed.Reg. at 35,414; 1980 Lead Background Document, reprinted in J.A. 151-76. Thus, here again we must remand to the agency for clearer explanation of its decision to list K065. 53
54 Petitioners claim that substantial portions of spent potliner do not contain hazardous levels of cyanide, citing post-1984 studies to support this contention. We conclude, however, that EPA need not have considered post-1984 studies in relisting the materials and that the K088 listing can therefore survive petitioners' challenge. 55 EPA listed spent potliner in 1980 based upon findings that potliner can leach significant concentrations of cyanides when disposed of on land; it cited evidence of cyanide-contaminated groundwater in several cases, including one case in which an aluminum plant had to provide an alternate source of drinking water for residents due to the cyanide contamination of eighteen drinking water wells in Washington state. See 1980 Spent Potliner Background Document, reprinted in J.A. 304. The 1988 Rule indicates that EPA relied on the 1980 data, not on subsequent data, as a basis for its determination that potliners are hazardous wastes. The 1980 Spent Potliner Background Document states that [n]o information was submitted during the public comment period that disagreed with the conclusion that spent potliners are hazardous as defined by the proposed regulation. J.A. 306. Post-1980 data form the basis for the petitioners' challenge to the listing; in accordance with the agency's instructions, see 1988 Rule, 53 Fed.Reg. at 35,417, those challenges may properly be considered as a petition for new rulemaking, but they do not render arbitrary and capricious that agency's determination that, based on 1980 data, spent potliners are hazardous wastes. 56
57 In 1980, EPA proposed to amend the characteristic of extraction procedure toxicity to apply to hexavalent chromium instead of total chromium, see 45 Fed.Reg. 72,029 (1980), based on EPA's recognition that trivalent chromium is not a health hazard, see id. at 72,030. Petitioners claim that EPA, having raised the trivalent/hexavalent chromium issue in 1980 and 1981, arbitrarily and capriciously ignored the issue completely when it made the listing decision in the 1988 Rule. The petitioners claim, in addition, that EPA violated RCRA Sec. 3001(a) and 40 C.F.R. Sec. 261.11(a)(3) by listing ferroalloy dusts and sludges on the basis of the presence of total chromium when the record indicates that these materials contain nearly exclusively trivalent chromium. They also argue that relevant chromium does not exhibit the toxicity EPA sought to regulate. See Final Brief of Consolidated Petitioners at 65-66. They also note that sixteen other wastes listed because of the presence of chromium were listed on the basis of hexavalent chromium, not total chromium, and that EPA's action here is therefore not consistent with this regulatory precedent, in violation of 40 C.F.R. Sec. 261.11(a)(3)(x). See id. at 66. Moreover, they claim that there is no evidence in the record that chromium has the potential to migrate even if the ferrochromium and ferrochromium silicon materials are improperly managed. 58 EPA summarizes petitioners' claims as posing the issue whether the ferroalloy wastes have the potential to leach significant concentrations of Cr(VI). Because EPA relies on data not cited in the 1988 Rule to respond to AMC's challenges concerning EPA's classification based on total chromium, see Brief for the Respondent at 47-48 (citing Ferro Ass'n Supp. Comments at 19, 27, reprinted in J.A. 434, 442), we must remand for further explanation. However, we deny the petitioners' petition concerning the volume of ferroalloy wastes. They contend that EPA improperly failed to consider the decline in the amount of K090 and K091 generated nationwide since 1980 due to economic conditions. That challenge is based on post-1980 data and may be raised in a petition for new rulemaking.