Opinion ID: 516043
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Conventional Pollutants

Text: 52 The permit prohibits the discharge of drill cuttings generated during the use of oil-based muds because the oil within the cuttings are conventional pollutants. During the notice and comment proceedings, API, among others, submitted comments describing innovative technology which would incinerate or vaporize the oils within the cuttings, thus permitting the discharge of cuttings without oil pollution. API now contends that the agency failed to respond adequately to these comments. It is true that the agency did not expressly respond to the incineration technology comments. Since the technology is, as admitted by the industry, still innovative, the EPA has subsequently responded in an appropriate manner by issuing a demonstration permit to an oil company in order to provide EPA further information as it continues its development of national guidelines. See 52 Fed.Reg. 10262 (1987). Accordingly, a remand in the context of this proceeding to require further comment would appear to serve no useful purpose. 53 NRDC also attacks the permit's regulation of drill cuttings. NRDC objects to the use of a visual sheen test as a method of monitoring compliance with the prohibition on the discharge of free oil. The visual sheen test amounts to a visual observation of the receiving water after drilling fluids are discharged, to determine if a sheen results on the surface of the water. 51 Fed.Reg. at 24899. As an alternative to this test, NRDC believes the permit should require the use of the static sheen test which was required by EPA Region 10 in the Alaska permit. See API, 787 F.2d at 982-84. 54 The visual sheen test has been determined to be a generally valid and useful standard in other contexts. See United States v. Chevron Oil Co., 583 F.2d 1357, 1363 (5th Cir.1978) (civil penalties under the Act for an oil spill). In addition, EPA has imposed certain modifications on the test to make it more reliable, see 51 Fed.Reg. at 24899, and there is no indication in the record that the conditions present in Alaska offshore operations, which led to the requirement of the static sheen test, would similarly hamper use of the visual sheen test under Gulf conditions. See API, 787 F.2d at 983. Accordingly, because EPA has wide discretion and authority to determine monitoring requirements in NPDES permits, see 33 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1318(a) (West Supp.1988); United States Steel Corp. v. Train, 556 F.2d 822, 850 (7th Cir.1977), we find that EPA acted reasonably in deciding to require the visual sheen test as a method for monitoring compliance of the no discharge of oil limitation. 55 NRDC also contends that EPA erred by failing to require barging of conventional pollutants in drilling fluids as BCT for these pollutants. NRDC has failed to direct us to relevant portions of the permit record that suggest that EPA acted unreasonably in this regard. Accordingly, under these circumstances, we are unable to conclude that EPA's scientific determination regarding conventional pollutants was arbitrary and capricious.