Opinion ID: 446849
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Failure to Regulate Fugitive Emissions

Text: 40 EPA concedes that at least with respect to some of the smelters, fugitive emissions may cause violations of the NAAQSs. See 48 Fed.Reg. 1717-18 (1983). Despite that concession and the absence of specific regulations directed at fugitive emissions in Arizona's plan, EPA approved the plan. EPA required only that Arizona promulgate regulations to control the problem of fugitive emissions by August 1, 1984. Kamp argues that EPA unlawfully gave Arizona additional time to develop a control strategy for fugitive emissions. He maintains that the lack of fugitive emission controls in Arizona's plan means that the plan does not insure attainment and maintenance of the NAAQSs, see 42 U.S.C. Sec. 7410(a)(2)(B), and that therefore EPA should have promulgated its own plan for the control of fugitive emissions under Sec. 110(c)(1) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 7410(c)(1). 41 EPA first argues that we have no jurisdiction to review its failure to promulgate a control strategy for fugitive emissions because that failure should have been challenged in the district court in the first instance. It cites as authority Sec. 304(a)(2) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 7604(a)(2), which provides for suits in district court against the Administrator where there is alleged a failure of the Administrator to perform any act or duty ... which is not discretionary with the Administrator. 42 EPA's jurisdictional argument was considered and rejected by the Seventh Circuit in Indiana & Michigan Electric Co. v. EPA, 733 F.2d 489 (7th Cir.1984). Section 307(b)(1) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 7607(b)(1), provides for judicial review in the circuit courts of EPA's approval of a state implementation plan. Relying on that provision, the Seventh Circuit held that when the challenge to agency inaction is embedded in a challenge to the validity of an implementation plan, jurisdiction lies in the circuit court reviewing the implementation plan. Id. at 490. Otherwise, of course, there would be a danger that two proceedings involving essentially the same agency action could occur simultaneously. Id. at 491. We find the reasoning of the Seventh Circuit persuasive and so hold that Kamp's challenge to the failure to regulate is properly before us. 43 The intervenor copper smelters argue that despite the Arizona plan's lack of a specific control strategy for fugitive emissions, that plan does insure attainment and maintenance of the NAAQSs. They point out that the plan requires the smelters to submit studies of the fugitive emission problem to Arizona and that EPA has required Arizona to promulgate detailed regulations by August 1, 1984. They maintain that those provisions provide ample guarantee that fugitive emissions will not prevent the attainment and maintenance of the NAAQSs. 44 Section 110(a)(2)(B) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 7410(a)(2)(B), requires that implementation plans rely on emission limitations to the maximum extent feasible in insuring the attainment and maintenance of the NAAQSs. See, e.g., Kennecott Copper Corp. v. Train, 526 F.2d 1149, 1150 (9th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 935, 96 S.Ct. 1665, 48 L.Ed.2d 176 (1976); Natural Resources Defense Council v. EPA, 489 F.2d 390, 406 (5th Cir.1974), rev'd on other grounds sub nom. Train v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 421 U.S. 60, 95 S.Ct. 1470, 43 L.Ed.2d 731 (1975). Accordingly, the Arizona plan's reliance on future regulation would fully comply with Sec. 110(a)(2)(B) only if it were infeasible at the time the plan was promulgated to resolve the fugitive emission problem through emission limitations. EPA's final rulemaking indicates that perhaps it would have been infeasible. See 48 Fed.Reg. 1718 (1983). 45 We do not resolve whether Arizona's plan is in complete compliance with Sec. 110(a)(2)(B) because an implementation plan need not be in absolute compliance with Sec. 110(a)(2) before it receives federal approval. EPA can approve a substantially complete implementation plan if it has assurance that the state will promptly complete the plan and if the approval of the incomplete plan does not circumvent any of the Act's substantive requirements. See Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Inc. v. EPA, 672 F.2d 998, 1005-07 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1035, 103 S.Ct. 445, 74 L.Ed.2d 601 (1982); City of Seabrook v. EPA, 659 F.2d 1349, 1353-57 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 822, 103 S.Ct. 51, 74 L.Ed.2d 57 (1982); Friends of the Earth v. EPA, 499 F.2d 1118, 1124 (2d Cir.1974). As the Second Circuit reasoned, the demands of its difficult and complex job require that EPA be given some flexibility to approve nearly complete implementation plans. Connecticut Fund for the Environment, 672 F.2d at 1006 (quoting Friends of the Earth, 499 F.2d at 1124). 46 Applying the approach of Connecticut Fund for the Environment, we conclude that EPA acted lawfully. Arizona's plan is substantially complete, since fugitive emissions are only one part of a large SO2 pollution problem otherwise covered by the plan. Arizona has assured that the incomplete part of its plan will be promptly completed, for EPA required Arizona to submit a detailed fugitive emission control plan by August 1, 1984. Most important, EPA's action does not circumvent the Act's substantive requirements by delaying the full attainment and maintenance of the NAAQSs. EPA has required that the state's plan for fugitive emissions be fully implemented within the plan's three-year attainment period. See 48 Fed.Reg. 1718 (1983). In light of these factors, EPA could properly approve Arizona's plan without itself promulgating a control plan for fugitive emissions.