Opinion ID: 772539
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ober's Objections to EPA's Rationale

Text: 35 Ober objects to these agency conclusions. First, Ober rejects the agency's adoption of the de minimis levels from the new source program. Second, Ober argues that EPA's data is insufficient because EPA did not specify how much of a public health hazard is caused by each de minimis source of PM-10 pollution, or by the collective pollution generated by all the de minimis sources. Third, Ober contends EPA improperly focused only on the deadline and not on the relative benefit to the area's air quality when it exempted de minimis sources from controls. Ober maintains that EPA should require controls on de minimis sources even if the controls would not make the difference between timely attainment and nonattainment. We address each objection in turn. New source thresholds 36 When EPA adopted the PM-10 de minimis standards for the new source program, it codified those levels in a regulation after accepting and considering public comment. See 40 C.F.R. S 51.165(b); 52 Fed. Reg. 24672, 24705-07. EPA argues that the new source de minimis standards in place since 1987 were still appropriate seven years later, when in 1994 the agency stated its intention to use them for existing sources. Ober does not challenge EPA's establishment of these de minimis levels for the new source review program in 1987. Instead, Ober suggests that de minimis thresholds adopted by EPA for new sources of pollution are somehow inappropriate when those same de minimis thresholds are adopted for existing sources of pollution. 37 We see no evidence in the record that the de minimis levels should be different when the PM-10 pollution is caused by existing sources in the area, rather than by new sources located elsewhere. The new source program requires permits for sources of PM-10 pollution located outside nonattainment areas. But its de minimis levels are keyed to the source's impact on the air quality in nonattainment areas, reflecting theprojected amount of PM-10 pollution the new source will cause there. The de minimis thresholds in both the new source review program and in this case, therefore, are based on the source's contribution to the pollution in nonattainment areas. We conclude that it was permissible for EPA to adopt the PM-10 de minimis thresholds already in place in the new source review program. Public health 38 Ober faults EPA for not describing the precise public health effect of each of these small amounts of PM-10 pollution, as well as the effect of the collective pollution generated by all the de minimis sources. Because EPA's mandate is to protect the public health, Ober argues, it must specifically address the public health impact of exempting these sources from controls. 39 EPA is engaged in promulgating a federal implementation plan for Phoenix to bring the area into conformity with the NAAQS, defined by the statute as ambient air quality standards the attainment and maintenance of which in the judgment of the Administrator . . . are requisite to protect the public health. 42 U.S.C. S 7409(b)(1). Congress required that NAAQS must protect not only average healthy individuals, but also `sensitive citizens'--children, for example, or people with asthma, emphysema, or other conditions rendering them particularly vulnerable to air pollution. American Lung Ass'n, 134 F.3d at 389. By definition, then, a source of pollution that has only a de minimis effect on the effort to bring Phoenix in conformity with these air quality standards has only a de minimis effect on the public health, as the NAAQS themselves are set to protect the public health. Because the NAAQS are public health standards, we do not believe that EPA was required to analyze more specifically the effect of the de minimis sources on the public health, under the circumstances presented by this case. Attainment deadlines 40 Ober also claims that EPA's additional criterion for declaring a source de minimis, evaluating whether control of that source would result in attainment of the NAAQS by the deadline, was arbitrary. 41 EPA explains that after the FIP adopted the de minimis levels and identified existing sources that produced PM-10 pollution below those levels, the plan proposed not to regulate those de minimis sources if doing so would not bring the Phoenix area into compliance with NAAQS. In other words, EPA acknowledges that even the small amounts of pollutiongenerated by a de minimis source or sources would be controlled, if such control served the goal of attaining clean air by the deadline. 42 Requiring controls on de minimis sources if NAAQS will be met by the deadline serves to limit, not expand, the exemption of de minimis sources from controls. Further, using the deadline to determine whether controls must be imposed makes sense. The deadline is not an arbitrary date unrelated to air quality concerns. All the schedules and timetables for control of air pollution are keyed to the statutory deadline, which is a fundamental part of the federal implementation plan meant to ensure that national clean air standards are achieved as expeditiously as practicable. See National Resources Defense Council v. Browner, 57 F.3d 1122, 1127 (D.C. Cir. 1995) (describing incremental deadlines in Clean Air Act as intended to speed the attainment of clean air standards). EPA's mandate is to formulate implementation plans [that] provide for the attainment of the NAAQS as expeditiously as practicable, Ober I, 84 F.3d at 309 (emphasis added), but no later than the deadline of December 31, 2001. 43 In this case, the FIP concludes that the deadline will not be met even if these small sources of PM-10 were controlled. Under those circumstances, it is reasonable to decline to control the de minimis sources of pollution. See , e.g., Environmental Defense Fund, 82 F.3d at 466 (de minimis exemptions permissible where it seems eminently reasonable  for EPA to interpret Clean Air Act to require federal government to curtail only nonconforming activity that is likely to interfere with the attainment goals in a [state implementation plan]). 44 Ober characterizes the use of the attainment deadline as a measure of whether EPA will require controls on a de minimis source as fundamentally flawed, because it might result in unreasonably high de minimis thresholds. Ober posits that where air quality is at its worst, large amounts of pollution might remain unregulated as de minimis, because the area is so far from attainment by the deadline. 45 But EPA has not adopted an elastic ceiling for PM-10 de minimis levels. The de minimis threshold is set at, and will not exceed, one microgram per cubic meter for the annual standard, and five micrograms per cubic meter for the 24-hour standard, regardless of the general air quality level. EPA does, however, retain the flexibility to regulate amounts of PM-10 pollution that are even smaller than the de minimis levels, if their control would mean attainment by the deadline. This is a result Ober presumably would applaud. 4 46 We conclude that EPA acted permissibly in considering attainment deadlines in deciding whether to require con-trols on de minimis sources of PM-10 pollution.