Opinion ID: 678492
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the stressed waters showings

Text: 40 We now move from the procedural to the substantive. In scrutinizing an order of an agency denying an evidentiary hearing, a reviewing court must determine whether the agency's findings accurately mirror the record, and if they do, whether those findings warrant denial of a hearing under the pertinent regulations. See Hynson, 412 U.S. at 622, 93 S.Ct. at 2479. In this instance, the first part of the inquiry tells the tale, for, if PRASA failed to present evidence adequate to create a genuine issue of material fact on one or more critical criteria, as EPA found, then EPA properly denied the requested hearing. The Future Impacts Showing 41 Under 40 C.F.R. Sec. 125.61(f)(3), it was incumbent upon PRASA to show, inter alia, that the emissions from the Mayaguez POTW would not retard the recovery of the biota or water quality if the level of human perturbation from other sources decreases. In promulgating this requirement, EPA recognized that it was erecting a high hurdle. Indeed, it stated in a preamble to the regulations: 42 As a practical matter, it will be extremely difficult for most applicants discharging into stressed waters to demonstrate that their discharge will meet the requirements of section 125.61. As a factual matter, the discharge of additional pollutants into an already polluted marine environment virtually always increases or contributes to adverse impact; it is extremely difficult, as a practical matter, to demonstrate that it does not. 43 44 Fed.Reg. 34,784, 34,806 (June 15, 1979). 44 EPA concluded that PRASA had not cleared this hurdle, and the Board concurred. It noted that the studies submitted by petitioner--principally the USGS report--addressed only the current impacts of the facility's emissions relative to the current impacts of all other emissions, and did not purport to make predictions regarding future impacts. See Board Op. at 15-16. Accordingly, without defining exactly what type of evidence might surmount the (f)(3) hurdle, the Board determined that petitioner's effort came up short. If this determination holds water, then the agency had a right summarily to deny the petition. 10 45 This reasoning finds a striking parallel in Hynson. There the Court agreed that an agency was not required to provide a formal hearing where it is apparent at the threshold that the applicant has not tendered any evidence which on its face meets the statutory standards as particularized by the regulations, Hynson, 412 U.S. at 620, 93 S.Ct. at 2478 (emphasis in the original). Spurred by Hynson, see id. at 621 n. 17, 93 S.Ct. at 2479 n. 17, FDA soon thereafter announced that, with regard to an imprecise regulation, a study would not conclusively be deemed inadequate unless it totally failed even to attempt to comply. See 39 Fed.Reg. 9757 (Mar. 13, 1974). Since that time, the courts have upheld FDA's summary denials of hearings under this policy. As the District of Columbia Circuit explained: 46 [E]ven a regulatory provision which seems vague in the abstract may nonetheless be conclusively at odds with a peculiarly deficient item of evidence. Thus ... summary judgment may be entered not only for failure to comply with precise regulations, but also on the basis of manifest noncompliance with general statutory or regulatory provisions.... 47 Copanos, 854 F.2d at 522 (citations omitted). We agree. Although in some cases an imprecise regulation may require an agency to give an applicant the benefit of the doubt regarding a summary decision, other cases will be so clear-cut as to warrant summary adverse action, notwithstanding the imprecision in the agency's standards. We believe the present case falls into the heartland of the latter category. 48 The Board's reasoning is also hauntingly reminiscent of Buttrey v. United States, 690 F.2d 1170 (5th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 927, 103 S.Ct. 2087, 77 L.Ed.2d 298 (1983), a case involving the Clean Water Act. There, the court of appeals agreed that the Army Corps of Engineers need not hold a hearing on every application for a permit to discharge dredged or fill material into navigable waters. Id. at 1174-83. One reason given was that the petitioner 49 apparently decided not even to attempt to make the three showings required under [the applicable regulations]. Procedural improvements in the nature of trial-type safeguards could do nothing to remedy so fundamental a flaw in the prima facie case. 50 Id. at 1183 (footnote omitted). 51 PRASA does not deny that its studies failed to draw direct conclusions regarding future impacts. 11 Instead, it attempts to discredit EPA's interpretation of the future impacts regulation, labelling it absolutist. This fusillade misses the mark. Though an absolutist interpretation, rendering modifications of secondary treatment requirements for emissions into stressed waters unobtainable, might well be problematic, we do not read the Board's opinion in that fashion. 52 In considering this issue, the Board refused to presume, absent scientific evidence, that a large quantity of lightly treated sewage--estimated as 850 tons per year--would have no impact on the surrounding stressed waters in the event that other stresses abated. See Board Op. at 15-16. This neither betokens an absolutist mindset nor forecloses the possibility that the Board might entertain a presumption of no future harm if presented with the prospect of more modest emissions. Nor does the Board's opinion foreclose the possibility that it might find a scientific showing of no future impacts to be persuasive. On the contrary, after noting EPA's great reluctance to sanction emissions into stressed waters, the Board made a point of leaving the door ajar: 53 This is not to say that there is no case where discharges into stressed waters would be allowed. Where, for example, the receiving waters are stressed by pollutants other than those in the proposed discharge and such pollutants do not contribute to existing stresses, a Sec. 301(h) permit may be appropriate. 54 Id. at 18 & n. 22. 55 To say more would be to paint the lily. We conclude that EPA did not promulgate an absolutist standard. And, moreover, we find the Board's rendition of the evidence to be faithful to the record, its reasoning to be sound, and its position to be well-supported by authority. Consequently, we hold that the Board acted within its authority in denying petitioner an evidentiary hearing and summarily terminating the administrative appeal on the ground that the studies submitted by petitioner failed to make any attempt to satisfy the strictures of 40 C.F.R. Sec. 125.61(f)(3). 12