Opinion ID: 492030
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Endangerment Beyond Controlled Area

Text: 87 We turn next to the larger issue of whether the HLW regulations permit endangerment as defined in the SDWA of underground drinking water sources beyond the controlled areas. As just discussed, the special source ground water requirements do not apply at all outside the repository site and five kilometers beyond. The individual protection requirements, however, while not a ground water rule as such, give a considerable measure of protection to ground water outside the controlled area. 10 88 The individual protection requirements are designed to protect individuals in the vicinity of a disposal system by setting annual individual exposure limits effective for 1,000 years. (This contrasts with the general containment release limits which are designed to reduce risks to the general population through standards which limit the cumulative release of radiation for 10,000 years anywhere in the accessible environment.) The Agency added the individual protection requirements because, although it felt that the general containment requirements would ensure that the overall population risks to future generations would be acceptably small, it also felt that individuals near the repositories might receive substantially greater exposure to radiation than the average person. While overall releases from a repository could be within the total cumulative release limits of the general containment requirements, there might be nearby localities where the radiation would be concentrated, and thus pose a substantial risk to some individuals. As the Agency explained in the preamble to the HLW rules: 89 Even with good engineering controls, some waste may eventually (i.e., several hundreds or thousands of years after disposal) be released into any ground water that might be in the immediate vicinity of a geologic repository. Since ground water generally provides relatively little dilution, anyone using such contaminated ground water in the future may receive a substantial radiation exposure (e.g., several rems per year or more). This possibility is inherent in collecting a very large amount of radioactivity in a small area. 90 50 Fed.Reg. 38,077, col. 3. To avoid this problem the Agency added the individual protection requirements. 91 The individual protection requirements limit the annual exposure from the disposal system to any individual member of the public for the first 1,000 years to no more than 25 millirems to the whole body, or 75 millirems to any organ. This limit applies outside the controlled area. Inherent in the individual protection requirements is an indirect protection of ground water because in assessing compliance with this requirement, all potential pathways of radiation from the repository to individuals must be considered, and the assumption must be made that an individual drinks two liters per day from any significant source of ground water outside the controlled area. A significant source of ground water is defined as any aquifer currently providing the primary source of water for a community water system, or any aquifers that satisfy five technical criteria. These criteria, according to the EPA, identify underground water formations that could meet the needs of community water systems in the future. See 50 Fed.Reg. 38,078, col. 3. 92 While the individual protection requirements thus provide a level of protection, they also tolerate levels of contamination of drinking water sources well in excess of primary drinking water standards established by EPA under the SDWA, thus permitting endangerment of such sources as defined in the SDWA. Pursuant to the SDWA, the EPA has established the maximum contaminant level for man-made radionuclides in drinking water. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 300g-1. Accordingly, drinking water shall not produce an annual dose equivalent to the total body or any internal organ greater than 4 millirem/year. 40 C.F.R. Sec. 141.16(a). With the exception of two specific radionuclides (Tritium and Strontium-90), the concentration of man-made radionuclides causing 4 millirems total body (or organ dose equivalents) is to be calculated on the basis of assuming that the individual will consume two liters of drinking water per day. 40 C.F.R. Sec. 141.16(b). 93 As set out, supra, drinking water supplies are to be considered endangered under the SDWA if the underground injection may result in the presence in underground water which supplies or can reasonably be expected to supply any public water system of any contaminant, and if the presence of such contaminant may result in such system's not complying with any national primary drinking water regulation. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 300h(d)(2) (emphasis supplied). Since the maximum contaminant level of four millirems was promulgated as a national primary drinking water regulation under the SDWA, and since the individual protection requirements (promulgated under the NWPA) allow an individual dose of 25 millirems, it follows that the individual protection requirements allow HLW to be disposed of under circumstances that, in time, may result in endangering underground sources of drinking water. 94 It can be argued that the individual protection requirements do not necessarily endanger ground water resources because the allowable exposure (25 millirems) might result through a pathway that does not include contamination of ground water supplies. There are several possible pathways that the EPA considers when assessing individual exposure. These possible pathways include direct releases to the land surface, releases through a river, releases to an ocean (then to ocean fish which man would ingest). See Background Information Document at Chapter 7. It is conceivable that an individual could receive only 2 millirem/year from underground drinking water sources and the remaining 23 millirems from a different pathway. This, theoretically, would not result in ground water contamination in violation of the no endangerment mandate, i.e., ground water would still be under four millirems. However, this scenario is highly unlikely. 95 In the preface to the HLW rules the EPA concedes that the geological and geochemical characteristics of appropriate sites tend to concentrate eventual releases of wastes in any ground water that is close to the site. Preamble, 50 Fed.Reg. 38,078. Moreover, the Agency admitted that even with very good engineered controls, radiation may eventually be released in ground water in the immediate vicinity of a repository. 50 Fed.Reg. 38,077, col. 2. The Agency states that anyone using such contaminated ground water in the future may receive a substantial radiation exposure (e.g., several rems per year or more ). 50 Fed.Reg. 38,077, col. 3 (emphasis supplied). Since a rem is equal to 1,000 millirems (a millirem equals one thousandth of a rem), a possible exposure level of several rems per year will equate to several thousand millirems. In view of the EPA's own references to substantial exposure through sources of drinking water, it seems clear that a large proportion of the allowable 25 millirems would reach the individual through the drinking water pathway. We note in this regard that the definition of endangerment, found in the SDWA, see 42 U.S.C. Sec. 300h(d)(2), does not require actual violations of primary drinking water standards but rather merely that underground injectionmay result in contamination in excess of the maximum contamination levels set forth pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act. 96 Nor is a violation of the no endangerment provision prevented by EPA's assertion, in the preamble to these rules, that the individual protection requirement in no way limits the future applicability of the Agency's drinking water standards (40 C.F.R. Part 141)--which protect community water supply systems through institutional controls. 50 Fed.Reg. 38,073, col. 2. Once HLW is placed in a repository, the situation may well be irreversible: there may be no feasible way, years later, to arrest ongoing contamination of surrounding water supplies. To be sure, if a community's water supply is contaminated above levels set in the SDWA, authorities may require that it be abandoned and a new source of supply used. But the EPA's duty under the SDWA is to ensure non-endangerment of underground sources of drinking water. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 300h(b)(3)(C). This cannot be done after the fact. 97 The individual protection requirements may allow endangerment of drinking water supplies in another way. The individual protections apply for 1,000 years, as compared to the general containment requirements, which apply for 10,000 years. Thus, after 1,000 years, exposures to individuals near the repositories are not regulated (other than to the extent that the generally applicable 10,000 year cumulative release limits regulate any releases near the repositories). Apparently the rule allows for virtually unlimited degradation of underground water supplies near the control area after 1,000 years. Thus, after 1,000 years, the no endangerment provision would be violated. Whether this is a permissible deviation is discussed below. We mention it in this section merely as a further way that the current rules may be said to permit endangerment. 98 We conclude that the individual protection requirements will permit repositories to be built and used for the disposal of HLW which will, judged by the stricter standard of the SDWA, endanger drinking water supplies. 99 (3) Does Noncompliance With SDWA Make The Regulations Contrary To Law Or Arbitrary And Capricious? 100 We have determined in sections (1) and (2) above that the challenged HLW regulations pertain to underground injection, and that the standards they provide will allow underground sources of drinking water to be endangered within the meaning of the SDWA. 101 We must now ask whether the foregoing conclusions cause the current regulations to be contrary to law or arbitrary and capricious. The EPA asserts that the no endangerment provision of the SDWA applies to the EPA only in its role as administrator under the SDWA. In its different role as regulator of the disposal of high level waste under the NWPA, the Agency argues that it is free to adopt standards different from the ground water standards established under SDWA. EPA also makes other arguments supporting the proposition that the SDWA is irrelevant to our review of the HLW standards. See infra. 102 In analyzing the relation between the SDWA's no endangerment provision and the HLW standards, we divide our discussion into two parts: (A) Non-compliance with the SDWA in the controlled area, and (B) Non-compliance outside the controlled area. 103 Briefly summarized, our conclusion in respect to (A) is that when enacting the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 10101-10226 (1982), Congress was aware that the area in immediate proximity to the buried HLW would likely be dedicated as a natural protective barrier, and hence could become contaminated. We read the NWPA as containing, by implication, authority for the EPA to depart from SDWA standards in any controlled area. It follows that insofar as the regulations under review permit radiation contamination of ground water located within the controlled area itself, they are not contrary to law nor do we find them to be arbitrary and capricious. 104 In respect to (B) our conclusion is different. We find no evidence that Congress expected the HLW standards to permit underground sources of drinking water outside the controlled area to be degraded to levels beneath the standards EPA had established under the SDWA. At very least, such permitted degradation, without any accompanying explanation showing a clear need or justification for a different and lower standard than the SDWA prescribes, is arbitrary and capricious. 105 We now discuss these matters in detail. 106 (A) Non-compliance With The SDWA In The Controlled Area 107 As we have pointed out above, the only protection for ground water within the controlled area comes from the special source ground water requirements. These requirements, however, only apply to specially defined Class I ground waters supplying drinking water for thousands of persons. It is quite likely that the ground water found in the controlled areas of actually selected repositories will not be of this type. Hence in the controlled area there will probably, as a practical matter, be no limits on the radioactive contamination of such ground water as is present. It follows that any ground water within the controlled area which is a source or potential source of drinking water will be subject to endangerment within the SDWA. 108 However, based on our reading of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and its legislative history, we conclude that Congress did not expect that its prior no endangerment policy, as found in the SDWA, should be applied to ground water found within the controlled area, even assuming such water were a source or potential source of drinking water. 109 The NWPA sets out the requirements of the EPA's task. The administrator pursuant to authority under other provisions of law, shall, by rule, promulgate generally applicable standards for protection of the general environment from offsite releases from radioactive material in repositories. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 10141(a). The EPA's duty applies to releases offsite. We read the statute as allowing onsite releases, or at least as acknowledging that some releases onsite are inevitable. 110 The EPA has explained that the ground water within the controlled area is necessarily part of the geologic mechanism that is going to be used to contain these wastes. This view has some support in the legislative history. That history, unfortunately, provides little discussion of the EPA's duties beyond merely reiterating that the administrator is to promulgate general standards for protection of the general environment. H.R.Rep. No. 491, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. 57, reprinted in 1982 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 3792, 3823. However, in its discussion of the Department of Energy's responsibility in selecting a site for a repository, the legislative history reveals that Congress knew that some contamination of ground water in the immediate vicinity of the radioactive material was inevitable. The House Report describes the Secretary of Energy's responsibility to 111 develop guidelines to be used in selecting sites qualified to merit in-depth study as possible repository sites. The primary feature of the site specifically to be evaluated consists of a rock medium about 1,000 or more feet underground which will of itself provide one of the primary containments of the waste. Some surface or associated geologic features are also important concerns in site selection. The Secretary is required to specify in the guidelines factors which would qualify or disqualify a site from development as a repository, including proximity to natural resources or populations, hydrogeophysics, seismic activity and nuclear defense activities. The Secretary is required to give priority to sites in rock which tend to slow down transportation of radionuclides by water. 112 1982 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 3816. Since Congress told the Department of Energy to give priority to sites in rock which tend to slow down transportation of radionuclides by water, it is clear that Congress knew of the inevitability of some contamination of ground water in the immediate area of the stored waste. Had Congress intended that there be no contamination of ground water in the immediate vicinity, it would have required that the DOE select rock formations that would stop the transportation of radionuclides by water, rather than merely giving priority to rock formations that slow down the spread of radionuclides by water. 113 Further support for the EPA's approach can be found in the EPA's duties under the Act. The EPA's responsibility is pursuant to authority under other provisions of law. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 10141(a). The other provisions of law that are referred to are found in the Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970, 3 C.F.R. Sec. 1072 (1966-70 compilation), which was the method, within the executive branch, for organizing the newly created EPA in 1970. The reorganization plan transferred to the EPA the 114 functions of the Atomic Energy Commission under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, administered through its Division of Radiation protection standards, to the extent that such functions of the Commission consist of establishing generally applicable standards for the protection of the general environment from radioactive material. As used herein, standards mean limits of radiation exposures or levels, or concentrations or quantities of radioactive material, in the general environment outside the boundaries of locations under the control of persons possessing or using radioactive material. 115 Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970, Sec. 2(a)(6), 3 C.F.R. Sec. 1073. See Quivira Mining Co. v. EPA, 728 F.2d 477 (10th Cir.1984) (reorganization plan effectively transferred Atomic Energy Commission's authority to EPA). 116 This definition of the parameters of the general environment to be protected by EPA further supports the view that Congress intended that the EPA only regulate releases beyond the controlled site. Since Congress knew that some ground water contamination is unavoidable and since Congress also knew that the EPA was working under this definition of the general environment (i.e., outside the boundaries of locations under the control of persons possessing or using radioactive material), it would be irrational and illogical to assume that Congress expected the EPA to set standards that would prohibit or severely limit all releases to the ground water within the controlled area, especially as Congress acknowledged that some releases are inevitable. We have previously said, [w]e would be loath to construe the [Clean Air] Act as requiring the Administrator to do the impossible. NRDC v. EPA, 478 F.2d 875 (1st Cir.1973). 117 Moreover, if Congress disagreed with this definition of the general environment from the reorganization plan (which defined the duties of the EPA), Congress would not have used the same terminology (i.e., the term general environment) that was used in the reorganization plan. This view is further bolstered by the language of the NWPA itself, which required the EPA to protect the general environment from offsite releases. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 10141(a). Since EPA's duty only applies to protect against offsite releases, Congress implicity allowed or at least expected releases onsite. 118 Finally, we note that the SDWA was enacted in 1974. The NWPA was enacted in 1982. As Congress knew that this nuclear waste could not be disposed of underground without some onsite contamination of ground water, and given the existence of the no endangerment policy of the SDWA, we are faced with conflicting statutory mandates. Using familiar statutory interpretation, when there is such a conflict, the most recent and more specific congressional pronouncement will prevail over a prior, more generalized statute. See 2A C. Sands, Sutherland on Statutes and Statutory Construction Sec. 51.02 (4th ed. 1984). True, repeals by implication are not favored, Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 551, 94 S.Ct. 2474, 2483, 41 L.Ed.2d 290 (1974); nonetheless, within the controlled area, we think the two statutes are irreconcilable. Id. at 550, 94 S.Ct. at 2482 (only permissible reason for finding of repeal by implication is when earlier and later statutes are irreconcilable). Congress ordered that these highly dangerous wastes be placed underground with the intent that the surrounding geologic formations would be the major component of the containment mechanism. Since Congress knew that such underground disposal will inevitably contaminate some ground water, we cannot read the NWPA as intending that any ground water found within the geologic formations, acting as a containment mechanism, must be kept at drinking water quality. We conclude that Congress meant to override SDWA's no endangerment policy for releases onsite, and therefore the no endangerment provision does not apply to potential drinking water sources within the controlled area. This being so, the endangerment of these onsite waters is not contrary to law nor, obviously, would it be arbitrary and capricious, given the administrator's reasoned explanation that contamination of this relatively small area is an essential part of his plan for protecting the outside environment. 119 (B) Non-compliance In The Accessible Environment 120 Outside the controlled area, we have much greater difficulty with EPA's arguments seeking to justify a standard which permits the radioactive contamination of sources of drinking water at levels higher than the same agency has deemed acceptable for public water supplies under the SDWA. We are told to read possibly conflicting statutes so as to give effect to each if we can do so while preserving their sense and purpose. Watt v. Alaska, 451 U.S. 259, 267, 101 S.Ct. 1673, 1678, 68 L.Ed.2d 80 (1981). 121 The EPA asserts that Part C of the SDWA does not impose a substantive no endangerment duty upon the Agency. The EPA asserts that the no endangerment provisions apply solely within the context of the SDWA itself. It asserts that Part C merely required the EPA to make sure that the states, in implementing their underground injection control programs, did not allow underground injection that would endanger drinking water sources. And so, according to the EPA, Part C imposed no duties which extend beyond its task of establishing minimum requirements for state underground injection control programs. 122 That reading of Part C of the SDWA seems too narrow. Congress enacted Part C because of concern about the indiscriminate underground disposal of hazardous substances, and the resulting possible loss of drinking water resources. The EPA was directed to see that, wherever necessary, the state had regulatory systems in place that would protect against future endangerment of drinking water supplies by underground injections. While the states were to do the regulating, EPA was to determine the adequacy of their programs and was directed to devise and impose regulations of its own if a state did not adopt a proper program. Congress's clear intent was that the states should, inter alia, refrain from adopting regulations which either on their face or as applied would authorize underground injection which endangers drinking water sources. H.R.Rep. No. 1185, 93d Congress, 2d Sess., reprinted in 1974 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 6454, 6481 (emphasis supplied). This blanket policy applies to federal as well as state agencies. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 300h(b)(1)(D). Part C thus establishes a clear federal policy to avoid endangering drinking water supplies through underground injection. Moreover, EPA itself set the drinking water standard which it thought proper to assure public health and safety. 123 It would be anomalous if EPA, as administrator of such a program with a statutory responsibility to assure nonendangerment of drinking water supplies, were free, without examination or explanation, to adopt regulations in other areas of its jurisdiction which authorize underground injections that violate its own standards. Perhaps if it were scientifically impossible to meet the goals of the NWPA except by reducing the standards for sources of drinking water near a repository, this would justify a deviation from the SDWA. Or perhaps there are good reasons reconciling the apparent inconsistency between the two standards. But the administrator nowhere states that compliance with SDWA is impossible or inconsistent with the goals of the NWPA, nor does he offer any explanation of why he deems the lesser standard in the HLW rules to be adequate to protect the public although he does not find it adequate under the SDWA. Moreover, the individual protection requirements apply for 1,000 years, and the Administrator does not explain why drinking water supplies will not be protected at levels established by the SDWA beyond the first 1,000 years. 124 The EPA asserts that absent some type of consistency provision, the requirements of Part C of the SDWA do not apply to rules promulgated under the NWPA. Consistency provisions have been used to expressly require that rules promulgated by the EPA under one statute be consistent with rules under another statute. See, e.g., Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2022(a) (1982) (EPA's environmental standards for control of uranium mill tailings must be consistent, to the maximum extent practicable, with requirements under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 6901-6991 (1982)); Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 6905(b) (1982) (EPA must integrate regulations, to maximum extent practicable, with appropriate provisions of the Clean Air Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 and such other Acts of Congress as grant regulatory authority to the Administrator.). 125 Since the NWPA has no such explicit consistency clause, the EPA denies any duty to harmonize the HLW rules with Part C of the SDWA. The Agency argues that neither the NWPA, the SDWA, nor the Administrative Procedure Act, requires every new regulation to dovetail with every other statute and regulation administered by the Agency. But the SDWA is no mere incidental provision. It reflects a national policy and standard relative to the country's water supplies. Safeguarding such resources and their users is likewise implicit in the EPA's duty under the NWPA to promulgate HLW standards for the protection of the general environment from offsite releases from radioactive material in repositories. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 10141(a). EPA's national rule under the SDWA specifying maximum permissible levels of contaminants in public drinking supplies presumably reflects the Agency's best thinking as to what the protection of the public requires. It is puzzling, to say the least, when the same agency now endorses a significantly lower standard--and does so entirely without explanation. Either the SDWA standard is much too stringent or the present standard is inadequate. In the absence of a showing by EPA that, for some reason, the standards of the SDWA are inappropriate to its present task, we think it may not cavalierly ignore those standards. We thus find the current standard arbitrary and capricious. 11 126 The EPA argues that there will be no violation of the SDWA, relying on its statement in the preamble to the HLW rules that they in no way limit the future applicability of the Agency's drinking water standards (40 C.F.R. Part 141)--which protect community water supply systems through institutional controls. 50 Fed.Reg. 38,073, col. 2 (Sept. 19, 1985). The Agency nowhere claims, however, that HLW must be disposed of so that radiation levels will meet SDWA's underground injection rules rather than only the more liberal individual protection standard. Applicability of 40 C.F.R. Part 141 means merely that community water systems must be monitored and treated, as necessary, to ensure that radionuclide concentrations do not exceed the levels allowed under the drinking water standards. See 40 C.F.R. Secs. 141-143 (1985). Thus the Agency's reliance on the future applicability of these rules means, in effect, that the responsibility and burden of cleaning up the excessive radiation releases to drinking water resources will fall on the local water companies. While placing this burden on the local water companies may prevent this contaminated water from being improperly used as drinking water, it will not prevent the future endangerment of drinking water supplies, which is a declared purpose of the Safe Drinking Water Act. 127 We cannot accept the Agency's claim that it may close its eyes to the possible and very likely future violations of the SDWA that will result from these design criteria, while blithely asserting that in the future the SDWA's regulations will still apply so as to protect drinking water. Enforcing the SDWA sometime in the future might well be too late since Congress's intent in enacting Part C of the SDWA was to prevent the endangerment of drinking water sources and thus ensure that there will be sufficient quantities of usable groundwater for future generations. Once those drinking water resources are contaminated, the other regulations under the SDWA may guard against improper use of this water for drinking, but the SDWA will not restore the drinking water sources to their original quality. 128 The simple fact is that disposal of HLW in the manner here contemplated will very likely amount to an underground injection. In announcing criteria which, until far in the future, the planned injection must be presently designed to satisfy, the EPA was irrational to establish, without a word of explanation, different and more relaxed criteria than the EPA's co-existing SDWA standard applicable to all other underground injections. By so doing, DOE and other agencies responsible for site selection and design are left in a quandary as to their possible separate responsibilities under the SDWA, since it is known that underground water will likely be encountered and that future contamination is a serious possibility. To be rational, the HLW regulations either should have been consistent with the SDWA standard--thus requiring repositories to be designed so that future emissions into any sources of drinking water will not result in contamination exceeding SDWA standards--or else should have explained that a different standard was adopted and justify such adoption. As matters now stand, the DOE may be encouraged to expend large sums on site selection, design and construction only to discover itself embroiled in a dispute as to whether the EPA's HLW standards excuse it from securing a state underground injection permit based on the EPA's different, more stringent standards. These are matters the EPA, relying on its expertise, should face and clarify in the HLW regulations; otherwise the HLW regulations will be on a collision course with the SDWA regulations. It is irrational for the EPA, as administrator of both sets of regulations, to ignore the inevitable clash. Rationally, this is the time for the Agency to determine and express its position, since all concerned are entitled to know whether the EPA believes that repositories must meet the SDWA's underground injection control rules as well as the individual protection standards and, if not, the rationale upon which a lesser standard is deemed sufficiently safe. 129 We emphasize that we are not holding that the Agency is necessarily incorrect in promulgating the present standard. We do not possess the necessary expertise to judge whether there are grounds for a lesser standard than that under the SDWA. See South Terminal Corp., 504 F.2d at 665; Duquesne Light Co. v. EPA, 522 F.2d 1186, 1196 (3d Cir.1975). As we are not scientists, we recognize that there could be valid explanations, not occurring to us, which would support a finding that these standards are rational. However, the Agency has never even acknowledged the interrelationship of the two statutes in respect to the Part C underground injection rules, and it has presented no reasoned explanation for the divergence between the level of contamination allowed by the HLW rules and the permissible levels of radiation contamination under the SDWA. Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Co., 463 U.S. 29, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983) (agency decision to rescind rule arbitrary and capricious because agency failed to consider relevant issue and failed to give sufficient explanation for decision); Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Wichita Board of Trade, 412 U.S. 800, 93 S.Ct. 2367, 37 L.Ed.2d 350 (1973) (agency's decision to allow rate change remanded because agency failed to set forth clearly the grounds on which it acted). 130 We hold that, for this reason, the present HLW rules are, on their face, arbitrary and capricious and hence invalid. They must be returned to the Agency for further consideration, which will result in either a new rule or, if the present standard is retained, an explanation of the present apparent inconsistency and irrationality. 131