Opinion ID: 508138
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: 8 Northside owns and operates a 131-acre hazardous waste site near Zionsville, Indiana (the Northside site). The Northside site was included as part of the EPA's first annual revision to the NPL, which was published in the form of a proposed rule on September 8, 1983. See 48 Fed.Reg. 40,674-82 (1983). Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. Sec. 553(c), 4 the EPA allowed interested parties, including Northside, to comment upon the proposed revision, and gave them until November 7, 1983 to do so. 48 Fed.Reg. 40,674 (1983). 9 Despite the November 7, 1983 deadline, Northside did not comment upon its site's inclusion in the NPL revision until more than two and one-half months after the comment period had officially closed. On January 31, 1984, the EPA received from Northside 420 pages of documents consisting of various geological studies, water quality evaluations, and correspondence pertaining to the Northside site. The documents were accompanied by a letter dated January 26, 1984 from Jonathan W. Bankert, president of Northside, asking that the Agency review these documents even though not summited [sic] by November 7, 1983 since we were not advised of that date. J.A. 516. 5 Although Bankert's letter briefly described each of the eleven separate documents Northside was submitting, the letter did not in any way comment concerning the specific relationship between any of the documents and Northside's objections to the way in which the EPA had applied the HRS when scoring the Northside site. Nor were specific statements about the relationship between the documents and the HRS contained in the documents submitted to the EPA along with Bankert's letter. 10 Even though Northside's comments were untimely filed, the EPA did review those comments and prepared a fourteen and one-half page response to them. See J.A. 469-83. Because Northside had not made any specific statements about the purpose of its comments in Bankert's letter or elsewhere, the EPA was forced to make certain assumptions about the documents which Northside had submitted: 11 These documents include results of geologic surveys and water quality evaluations pertaining to ground and surface water in the area around the [Northside] site. Northside made no further specific comments, based on the documentation, regarding the scoring factors on which the HRS score for this site was based. For this reason, EPA's response addresses only major findings or conclusions presented in the documents which relate to the HRS score and subsequent listing of the site on the NPL .... 12 In general, all of the documentation which was submitted appeared related to the linking of the contaminants found in samples of surface water and in on-site wells to the landfill and to indicate contamination is more likely migrating from the Envirochem site located to the north of Northside landfill. 13 J.A. 470 (emphasis added). 14 After reviewing Northside's comments, the EPA confirmed its previous conclusion that the site has been properly scored as proposed and is eligible for listing on the NPL. J.A. 483. 6 Accordingly, the Northside site was included in the first annual revision of the NPL when the latter was promulgated as a final rule on September 21, 1984. 49 Fed.Reg. 37,070-90 (1984). 7 Northside did not request the EPA to reconsider its ruling, although it had the right to do so. See 5 U.S.C. Sec. 553(e). 8 Instead, Northside instituted this suit in this court to attack its inclusion on the NPL.