Opinion ID: 2028655
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Is the Consent Decree's PCB Limitation Binding?

Text: The sole issue determined by the ALJ and the Water Pollution Control Board in denying the Conards' objections to the NPDES permit was whether IDEM is bound by the Consent Decree's 1 ppb maximum limit on PCBs. At that stage, the Conards did not contest the fact that the Consent Decree imposes upon Westinghouse a duty to construct a water treatment facility which would reduce the PCB content in the water to a maximum of 1 ppb. [1] Instead, they argued that IDEM permitting process was not bound by the decree's 1 ppb maximum PCB limit. The State of Indiana and IDEM became bound by the terms of the Consent Decree when their representatives signed it. The decree was signed for the State of Indiana by Attorney General Linley Pearson and Deputy Attorney General Michael Schaefer, and by the Environmental Management Board (now IDEM) by its technical secretary, Ralph C. Pickard. Paragraph 2 of the decree specifically states: This Consent Decree shall bind ... all parties hereto and their respective successors and assigns, whether elected or appointed. See also Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air v. Pennsylvania, 678 F.2d 470 (3d Cir.) (Pennsylvania bound by consent decree which by its terms applies to state and was signed by state attorney general and counsel for Departments of Transportation and Environmental Resources), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 969, 103 S.Ct. 298, 74 L.Ed.2d 280 (1982). In signing the Consent Decree, the parties to the decree agreed to impose upon Westinghouse the duty of constructing a water treatment facility which would reduce the concentration of PCBs in the water to a maximum of 1 ppb. As consent judgments are contractual in nature and to be construed as written contracts, cf. United States v. Armour & Co., 402 U.S. 673, 681-82, 91 S.Ct. 1752, 1757-58, 29 L.Ed.2d 256 (1971), we look only to the terms of the decree, which unambiguously establish Westinghouse's duties concerning its treatment facility. Because Westinghouse waived its right to litigate the issues implicated in the Monroe County clean-up project, the conditions upon which it gave that waiver must be respected. See id. The trial court erred when it ventured beyond the four corners of the Consent Decree and interpreted the binding effect of the 1 ppb limit based on the extrinsic statements of EPA officials made before entry of the decree. Resort to extrinsic evidence is unnecessary, as Paragraph 59(a) of the Consent Decree unambiguously imposes upon Westinghouse duties in regard to the water treatment facility which are eliminated when the PCB concentration in the influent to the system drops below 1 ppb.