Opinion ID: 3052689
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: california’s 1994 sip process and epa review

Text: AND APPROVAL Under threat of an EPA takeover of the state’s air quality planning, the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”), the state agency responsible for preparing and submitting a SIP for EPA approval, submitted the 1994 SIP. See Cal. Health & Safety Code § 39602. The SIP includes a subsection (known as “the Pesticide Element”) prepared by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (“DPR”) that proposes strategies for reducing volatile organic compound (“VOC”)1 emissions from agricultural and commercial structural pesticides. The Pesticide Element set a “goal” of reducing, by 2005, pesticide-related emissions from the 1990 baseline by a “maximum of 20 percent,” and provided that “a decision whether additional regulatory measures to ensure that reductions in pesticidal VOC emissions are achieved will be made by 1997” (emphasis added). A timeline at the end of the Pesticide Element states that the decision on regulations will be made by November 1997, with the implementation of the plan to occur by December 1998. The plan’s summary also states that by December 1998, “[i]mplementation of additional regulatory measures, if necessary, will take place to ensure that targeted pesticidal VOC reductions occur” (emphasis added). After California submitted the Pesticide Element, considerable discussion took place through correspondence between David Howekamp, Director of EPA Region IX Air Division, and DPR Director James Wells. Howekamp expressed concern that the proposed SIP was not complete enough for EPA review. Specifically, EPA was concerned that the SIP lacked specific emission reduction goals specified by date and nonattainment area, and that the SIP did not propose a firm dead- 1 VOCs mix with oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in heat and sunlight to form ground-level ozone, i.e., smog. EL COMITÉ v. WARMERDAM 11189 line by which California committed to deciding whether to adopt new emissions regulations for several nonattainment areas. To fill these gaps, Howekamp proposed that California “explicitly” commit to a decision deadline of June 15, 1997, and suggested emission reduction goals by nonattainment area. California capitulated to EPA’s requests in a May 11, 1995, letter from James Boyd, then executive officer for CARB, to the EPA, stating that he was “transmit[ting] a clarification” of the Pesticide Element of the 1994 SIP, and noting that the “enclosed letter from DPR clarifies that in the SIP, California has committed to adopt and submit to U.S. EPA by June 15, 1997, any regulations necessary to achieve the emission reductions from pesticides specified in the letter.” Letter from Boyd to EPA, May 11, 1995 (emphasis added). The enclosed “letter” was a May 9, 1995, memorandum from Wells to Boyd (“the Wells Memorandum”). The Wells Memorandum stated the same commitment referenced in Boyd’s cover letter and included a table outlining interim reduction goals for each nonattainment area. When the EPA issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the summary of the Proposed Rules identified the Wells Memorandum as a “clarification” of the “technical details of the pesticide commitment” and stated that the “clarification is considered part of California’s SIP.” Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; California—Ozone, 61 Fed. Reg. 10920, 10935 (March 18, 1996) (to be codified at 40 C.F.R. pt. 52) (“Proposed Rules”). Following the close of the public comment period, but before the Final Rule issued, CARB sent a letter dated June 13, 1996 to Howekamp (“Howekamp letter”) seeking to clarify and correct various aspects of the SIP, in particular, to delete the table from the Wells letter labeled “Reductions from 1990 Pesticide Emissions Baselines.” This deletion effectively erased any record indicating the interim target reductions for the nonattainment areas. Following this modification, the EPA approved the 11190 EL COMITÉ v. WARMERDAM 1994 SIP on January 8, 1997. See Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; California—Ozone,62 Fed. Reg. 1150, 1186-87; 40 C.F.R. § 52.220(c)(204)(i)(A)(6) (1997). In February, four months before the June 15, 1997, deadline for deciding whether to adopt regulations, a DPR scientist called into question CARB’s methodology— “back-casting,” or extrapolating backwards from 1991 data— for calculating the 1990 baseline inventory. Back-casting is the methodology stated in the Pesticide Element. The scientist proposed instead calculating the 1990 baseline with 1990 data from the Pesticide Use Report (“PUR”). Although there is no contemporaneous evidence of the decision to switch methodologies, a public workshop package released by DPR in February 1998 confirms that the department adopted the scientist’s approach of using the 1990 PUR data. By the time the June 15 deadline arrived, California had decided it was unnecessary to adopt additional regulations. This decision is documented in a February 1998 letter from Wells in response to a Notice of Intent to Sue under the Clean Air Act sent by the Environmental Defense Center. Wells’s letter states that [o]ur April 1997 analysis of data through 1995 showed that all nonattainment areas (NAAs) were meeting annual interim goals, and that four out of five were already meeting the final 2005 year goals . . . . Therefore, we determined in April 1997 that no regulations were necessary to reduce VOC emissions by specific percentages. Consequently, no regulations were adopted and submitted to U.S. EPA in June 1997.