Opinion ID: 519994
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Issues Concerning Waste-Stabilization Ponds

Text: 196 Petitioners DuPont, Texas Eastman, Union Carbide, and Air Products incorporate the use of waste stablilization ponds (WSP systems) for the treatment of industrial wastewater. WSP systems consist of tanks where organic matter in wastewater is broken down through bacterial action. During the treatment process, algae form which increase the TSS in the effluent. Petitioners raise several claims regarding the application of the BPT limits to plants employing WSP systems. First, petitioners contend that the EPA acted arbitrarily and capriciously in determining that pond algae are a conventional pollutant subject to the BPT limitations for BODS 146 and TSS. 147 Second, petitioners contend that the EPA violated the Act by failing adequately to account for algae-related problems in setting BPT limits for BODS and TSS. Third, petitioners argue that the EPA acted arbitrarily and capriciously in specifying copper sulfate treatment as a means of controlling algae without adequate notice and comment on the practicality of that treatment technology. 197 We find that the EPA's implicit regulation of algae as a component of BODS and TSS had a rational basis and that the EPA was not required to create a separate subcategory for plants utilizing WSP systems. These four plants perform the same types of operations as other OCPSF plants and generate the same types of OCPSF process wastewaters and are thus properly subject to the same BPT limitations. Finally, we conclude that the EPA did not act arbitrarily and capriciously in designating copper sulfate treatment as a means of controlling algae. 198
199 Pollutants and Thus Subject to BPT Regulations 200 Petitioners argue that the EPA should not have included algae as a component of BODS and TSS because algae do not contribute to the environmental problems associated with BODS and TSS. We find, however, that the EPA's regulation of algae as a component of BODS and TSS had a rational basis. 201 The EPA notes correctly that Congress, without limiting the definition of the terms, includes BODS and TSS in the broad definition of conventional pollutants. 148 The EPA concludes that because algae are both oxygen-demanding organisms and suspended solids, algae are encompassed within both BODS and TSS as those terms are used in the Act, and the EPA is thus authorized to include algae in the measurement of both TSS and BODS. The EPA also notes that Congress has specifically recognized that algae are a significant cause of water quality problems. 149 202 In the OCPSF rulemaking, the EPA found that algae can indeed present significant water-quality problems: 203 The control of algae growth in ponds, lakes, and reservoirs can be a serious problem in water quality management. Among the nuisances created by the often sudden blooming of one or more algal genera are: odors and tastes; fish kills; poisoned water fowl; shortened filter runs in water-purification plants; growths in pipes and other water conduits; and interference with industrial water uses. Therefore, proper control of algae growth in ponds is necessary to avoid the potential nuisances in the ponds and/or receiving waters. 150 204 While petitioners take issue with some of the EPA's specific conclusions regarding the effects of algae on water quality, they have failed to demonstrate that the Administrator acted arbitrarily and capriciously in regulating algae as a conventional pollutant. The EPA has authority to regulate the discharge of a pollutant even where its effects are subject to some uncertainty. 151 We will not substitute our judgment for the Administrator's in this regard. 205
Utilizing Waste-Stabilization-Ponds 206 Petitioners argue next that the EPA violated Section 304(b)(1)(B) of the Act by failing to adequately account for algae-related problems in setting BPT limits for BODS and TSS. As explained more fully above, Section 304(b)(1)(B) requires the EPA to take into account several factors, in addition to cost, in determining BPT, including the age of equipment and facilities, the process employed, the engineering aspects of the application of various types of control technologies, process changes, and non-water quality environmental impacts. 152 Petitioners assert that based on those considerations, the EPA should have created a separate subcategory for plants utilizing WSP systems, subject to less stringent BPT limitations on BODs and TSS than those applicable to the rest of the industry. 207 Petitioners first claim that the EPA failed to consider the extent to which high effluent TSS concentrations are a function of the type of wastewater in the treatment system. The EPA maintains, however, that petitioners' plants do not differ materially from other OCPSF plants with respect to manufacturing operations or wastewater characteristics. Rather, the EPA argues, their plants differ only with respect to the type of treatment petitioners voluntarily chose to employ. Petitioners did not choose to employ the type of biological treatment system that is most commonly used by good performers in the OCPSF industry and that was used by the EPA for cost-estimating purposes: activated sludge, followed by secondary clarification. 153 Instead, petitioners chose to employ WSP treatment systems which generate additional pollutants in the form of algae. The EPA asserts that it therefore reasonably required petitioners' plants to meet the limitations demonstrated to be achievable by the average of the 71 best plants in the OCPSF industry, 154 rather than providing less stringent limitations for these plants simply because they chose to employ less effective treatment technology. 208 The EPA asserts that, as required by the Act, it considered in detail the engineering aspects of the application of various types of control techniques and used this factor to identify the data base from which it derived the BPT limitations. Those limitations properly reflected the results achieved by more effective treatment systems than those employed by petitioners. Petitioners cannot now be excused from meeting the BPT limits on the grounds that their present method of treatment is less effective than the average of the best--in this case, because WSP systems create additional pollutants. Such a construction of Section 304(b)(1)(B) would defeat the very purpose of establishing BPT limits. The EPA is not required to base BPT upon a technology that is less effective than the best practicable technology demonstrated in the industry. 155 Rather, in establishing BPT, the EPA must forbid the level of effluent produced by the most pollution-prone segment of the industry, that segment not measuring up to 'the average of the best existing performance.'  156 We therefore hold that the EPA was entirely reasonable in declining to create a subcategory for plants employing WSP treatment systems. 209
Plants Utilizing Pond Technology 210 Petitioners argue next that the EPA's failure to consider waste treatability resulted in the designation of unworkable upgrades to achieve BPT. The EPA does not seriously dispute petitioners' claim that the algae growth associated with petitioners' present treatment systems may not be remedied by relatively simple and inexpensive upgrades. Rather, the EPA notes that it is entitled to look at costs on an industry-wide basis as opposed to plant-by-plant, and may use industry averages to develop rough estimates to help the Agency determine whether the cost is wholly out of proportion to the benefit. 157 211 The EPA concedes that petitioners may be required to install entirely new treatment units consisting of activated sludge and secondary clarification. However, the EPA notes that it estimated the costs of such steps for nearly half of the plants in the industry requiring treatment improvements to comply with BPT. 158 Thus, even if Texas Eastman, DuPont, and Air Products are required to install new activated-sludge systems in order to comply with BPT, the costs of these systems would be within the range generally estimated for the industry as a whole. We have already held that the costs of the BPT limits for the OCPSF industry are not wholly out of proportion to the benefits. Because petitioners' compliance problems are not attributable to their production process, raw wastewaters, or other relevant factors, but only to their treatment systems, their costs in constructing and operating a biological system complying with the regulations will not differ materially from those incurred by many other industry members. 159 We therefore agree with the EPA that even this worst-case scenario does not provide a basis for exempting petitioners from the BPT limits that apply to the rest of the industry. 212
213 Finally, petitioners contend that although the EPA proposed copper sulfate as a means of controlling algae at a reasonable cost, this method was not considered in the rulemaking and would in fact impair the efficiency of their ponds and possibly result in excess discharges of copper, thereby causing water-quality problems. 214 While petitioners do raise legitimate concerns regarding the practicability of employing copper-sulfate treatment as a means of complying with BPT, the EPA did not rely on copper-sulfate treatment alone in estimating petitioners' compliance costs. 215 The EPA's cost estimates for Union Carbide, Texas Eastman, and DuPont were based on far more substantial treatment than the application of copper sulfate. For Union Carbide, the EPA costed an entirely new activated sludge system, which generates no algae. For both Texas Eastman and DuPont, the EPA estimated the costs of installing an additional chemically-assisted clarifier to enhance solids removal, and, for Texas Eastman, the EPA also costed an upgrade to its biological unit to enhance BODS removal. 160 216 Again, while the EPA concedes that the treatment methods costed for Texas Eastman and DuPont may not in fact enable their WSP treatment systems to achieve the BPT limits, the EPA reasonably concluded that there is no basis on which petitioners may be excluded from the BPT rules. 217 Petitioners also argue that the BPT limitations should be remanded because the cost of copper sulfate as an algae treatment was not specifically discussed in the EPA's proposals. However, the EPA notes that the control of algae by using copper sulfate was not the basis for BPT and was considered as part of a subsidiary analysis that specifically responded to petitioners' comments. 161 218 Thus, to the extent that the costing of copper-sulfate treatment for algae played a role in the rulemaking proceeding, it was a logical outgrowth of the proceedings in general and of petitioners' own comments in particular. 162
219 Petitioners argue that the cost of BPT, even apart from the issue of algae-control costs, is wholly disproportionate to its benefits. We held above that the cost of BPT was not wholly disproportionate to its benefits and therefore need not further address petitioner's claims to the contrary. 220