Opinion ID: 186114
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lawfulness of PM as a Surrogate

Text: 16 During the notice-and-comment period, EPA responded to an objection to the use of PM as a surrogate by stating that the CAA does not prohibit us from using an appropriate surrogate pollutant for individual HAP species to confirm the proper use of MACT. EPA, National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Primary Copper Smelters — Background Information for Promulgated Standards 2-2 (2001) (EPA Background Document). Sierra Club seizes upon that explanation to argue that EPA has violated Section 7412(d)(3) by setting surrogate emission standards to confirm the proper use of a chosen technology, instead of basing standards on what the best sources achieve with respect to HAP emissions control. Reply Br. at 2. Sierra Club contends that copper smelters achieve HAP emission reductions not just through PM control, but by altering ore inputs as well. Because EPA promulgated the emission standards based only on PM control without considering ore inputs, Sierra Club argues, the standards fail to reflect what the best-performing sources achieve: setting standards ... that reflect only what is achievable through the use of a particular control technology contravenes the Act. Id. 17 Sierra Club relies heavily on this court's decision in CKRC, but EPA avoided the problems that infected its analysis in that case. The statute requires EPA to set minimum emission standards at the level achieved by the best-performing sources. See 42 U.S.C. § 7412(d)(3). In CKRC, EPA established a MACT pool comprised of the best-performing sources, identified the primary emission control technology used by the sources in the MACT pool, selected that technology as the MACT control, and set the final emission standard at the level of the worst -achieving source using the MACT control. 255 F.3d at 859 (emphasis added). EPA defended that approach as a means of ensuring achievability, arguing that Section 7412(d)(3) imported Section 7412(d)(2)'s achievability standard. We disagreed. Id. at 861. 18 EPA advanced an alternative argument, to the effect that adopting emission standards based on what the worst-achieving sources using MACT achieved did reflect what the best-achieving sources actually achieved. See id. at 862. We were having none of that: The worst-performing sources using MACT technology could not be representative of the best-performing sources, because evidence showed that (1) some of the best-performing sources used other control devices in combination with the MACT technology, (2) the performance of different models of the same technology varied based on certain features, and (3) other factors such as feed rate and material composition affected emission outputs. Id. at 862-64. 19 The instant case is quite different. EPA did not violate Section 7412(d)(3) by setting emission standards based on the worst-performing sources using MACT. Nor did EPA use the worst-performing sources to estimate the performance of the best-performing sources. Sierra Club challenges only the type of emission standard — PM as a surrogate for HAPs — not, as in CKRC, the numerical limitation set by the standard. 20 In this case, EPA promulgated standards that accurately reflect the control achieved by the best-performing sources. EPA established emission standards for the various copper smelting processes based upon the actual PM emissions of the relevant units from performance tests, e.g., Final Rule, 67 Fed.Reg. at 40,482-83 (smelting process emissions, batch converters, slag cleaning vessels), or based upon established regulatory limits, e.g., Proposed Rule, 63 Fed. Reg. at 19,593-94; EPA Background Document, at 2-10-2-11 (copper concentrate dryers). Contrary to Sierra Club's assertion that EPA established an equipment standard, EPA started down that road but pulled back: 21 After careful review and evaluation of comments received objecting to our use of an equipment standard rather than a numerical emission limit and new emissions data obtained since proposal, we concluded that a change in the proposed standards for process off-gas emissions was warranted. As a result, we issued a supplement to the proposed rule ... in which we proposed a numerical emission standard that would limit the concentration of total particulate matter in the off-gases discharged. 22 Final Rule, 67 Fed. Reg. at 40,482/3 (referring to emission standards for smelting furnaces, slag cleaning vessels, and batch converters and citing National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Source Categories: National Emissions Standards for Primary Copper Smelters, 65 Fed.Reg. 39,326 (June 26, 2000) (Supplement)). EPA complied with Section 7412(d)(3) by setting emission limits on the basis of the PM control that the best sources actually achieved, not on the basis of what any source using PM control achieved. EPA did not repeat its CKRC missteps. We now turn to Sierra Club's contention that use of PM as a surrogate for metal HAPs was unreasonable under National Lime.