Opinion ID: 512567
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Republic Steel Quarry

Text: 30 The city of Elyria owns an old quarry used by Republic Steel Corporation from 1950 until 1972 for the discharge of approximately 200,000 gallons of waste pickle liquors per year. Republic had discarded the pickle liquor after its use as an acid to dissolve oxides formed on steel during the hot-rolling process. EPA, relying on studies showing: (1) the presence of cadmium, chromium, vanadium, zinc, and arsenic in the groundwater; and (2) an estimated 800 people living within three miles of the site who rely on local groundwater as a source of drinking water, scored a maximum for observed release and entered a total HRS score of 29.85, qualifying the site for inclusion on the NPL update. Elyria, like Intel, attacks both the scoring and the testing methodology underlying EPA's decision. Where Intel had attacked the scoring on the basis of EPA's treatment of two aquifers as one in the route characteristic component of the computation, Elyria contends that EPA has treated two populations as one in the target component. 31 In the calculation of an HRS score, as applied to this site, EPA assigns values to five rating factors: observed release, route characteristics, containment, waste characteristics, and target population. The assignment of values for target population consists of a score for groundwater use added to a score for distance to nearest well/population served. 40 C.F.R. pt. 300, app. A Sec. 3.5 (1987). The raw groundwater use value ranges from zero to three depending upon the uses to which the aquifer of concern is put. Id. At the Republic Quarry, EPA assigned a value of three, which is appropriate under section 3.4 where the aquifer of concern is used for drinking water and no alternative water supply is available. Under the Agency's procedures, that value was multiplied by three to produce the final score for the groundwater-use element of the target value of the HRS scoring. That figure is then added to the figure for the distance to nearest well/population served score, in this case 16. That second component is achieved by the use of a matrix involving the size and nearness of the population to the site. 40 C.F.R., pt. 300, app. A Sec. 3.5 (1987). EPA, in this case, based its computation on an estimate of population served of approximately 800 and a nearness factor based on residential wells within one mile of the site. 32 Petitioner argues that there are, in fact, two populations involved. The first is a small population of fewer than 100 people who had an alternate water supply available. This would yield a groundwater use score of six rather than nine, as found by EPA, but a population served value of zero which would produce a well/population component of ten. Thus, the total target score would be 16, nine less than the value arrived at by EPA's calculations. Petitioner identifies a second, larger but more distant population that had no alternative water supply and would receive a maximum groundwater use value of nine. This calculation would yield a population size score of two, which produces a matrix-determined distance/population component of 12. Thus the total target score would be 21. Either way, Elyria argues, the score is lower than that produced by EPA's calculation which lumped the two separate populations into one. 33 Appealing as this reasoning may at first appear, it does not invalidate EPA's scoring of the target factor. As discussed earlier, EPA uses two subfactors in estimating the population at risk from contaminated groundwater: groundwater use and distance to nearest well/population served. 40 C.F.R. pt. 300, app. A Sec. 3.5 (1987). The first subfactor indicates the nature of the use made of ground water drawn from the aquifer of concern within 3 miles of the hazardous substance. Id. In the instant case, there were people within that three mile radius dependent on the aquifer of concern for drinking water and who had no alternative supply. As noted above, this yields a nine for the first factor. The second factor involved a well which was (based on data from the relevant county health department) between 2,000 feet and one mile from the site and served a total population of approximately 800, yielding a score of three, matrix-adjusted to 16, for a total of 25. Computed with the other HRS components, this totalled 29.85 and resulted in the site's inclusion on the NPL. 34 Either of petitioner's computations combined with EPA's computations for the first four characteristics yields a total HRS score lower than the 28.5 required for inclusion on the NPL. Thus, if we accepted Elyria's computations we would be required to allow the petition and set aside the Agency's decision. However, we are not required to accept Elyria's computations. Nothing in EPA regulations or in any other body of law requires EPA to make a subdivision of the population under examination. It appears to us that this is as it must be. While Elyria asserts that it is possible to make the requested breakdown in the particular population under examination here, EPA obviously must operate under regulations generally applicable. No doubt there are many target populations in which some part thereof has alternative drinking water sources and some part does not. EPA has enough to do in simply determining the population at risk, its nearness to the source of pollution, and the fact that some part of it does not have alternative drinking water sources, without making a house-by-house count. In the present case, for example, the conceded total population within a three mile radius is approximately 60,000. EPA was able to sort out the relevant components to the degree indicated in the described target component calculation. We find no reason to require anything further. In Eagle-Picher III, supra, we rejected another challenge to a target factor computation, concluding that that challenge in essence contests the Hazard Ranking System's preference for using formulas even where actual figures are available, a preference which we have already upheld. 822 F.2d at 146 (citing Eagle-Picher I, 759 F.2d at 921-22). In this case, as in that, the use of the formula is not arbitrary or capricious, and the record supports the Agency's conclusion. 35 As to the methodology employed in reaching the maximum score on observed release, Elyria makes colorable arguments that EPA's computation is inadequate. These arguments center on the presence of evidence that the Agency's contractor did not properly filter samples from the quarry before analysis. Republic Steel Quarry Law Water Metals Groundwater Monitoring Wells Sampling Results at 1-2 (Dec. 13, 1983), NPL-U2-15-2-2, reprinted in J.A. 2059-60. Samples taken by petitioner's contractor in the presence of Agency representatives followed proper filtration methods and found concentrations of contaminants lower than upgradient wells thus, at least arguably, negating the observed release. Public Comments Regarding NPL Update # 2; Lawrence A. Szuhay, Manager, Waste Management Environmental Control at 3 (Dec. 14, 1984), NPL-U2-3-547, reprinted in J.A. 2027. However, the evidence is also susceptible to the interpretation that the samples were properly fil tered. That interpretation is a reasonable one, and we will not substitute our judgment for that of the Agency. Cf. Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 416, 91 S.Ct. 814, 823, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971). The fact that a later test yielded different results does not require that EPA remove its score of an observed release. [N]egative results during one or more sampling intervals cannot refute a finding, when based on valid sampling and analyses, that an observed release has occurred. 49 Fed.Reg. 37070, 37078 (1984). Since EPA's conclusion that its sampling and analysis was valid is not an arbitrary or capricious one, we will not disturb this component of the score. 6 36 In sum, petitioner Elyria has not demonstrated that EPA's inclusion of the Republic Steel Quarry on the second NPL update is arbitrary, capricious, or otherwise contrary to law.