Opinion ID: 705105
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Regulating Drill Cuttings as TSS

Text: 57 Industry petitioners also argue that EPA improperly classified, and then regulated, drill cuttings as Total Suspended Solids (TSS). According to Industry petitioners, it is arbitrary to ban an entire waste stream (such as all drill cuttings) as TSS when only a small portion of the waste is actually suspended. In Industry petitioners' opinion, a large percentage of the drill cuttings are heavy bits of rock that sink immediately to the ocean floor and should therefore not be classified as TSS. 58 EPA counters that drill cuttings are classified as TSS because they fit within the definition of TSS. According to EPA, TSS is defined as nonfilterable residue. This definition requires only that the substance will not pass through a glass filter. Consequently, EPA uses Method 160.2 20 to measure the amount of solid retained by a fiber filter. Because the drill cuttings discharged by oil and gas producers will not pass through such a filter, drill cuttings are, by EPA's definition, TSS. Industry petitioners maintain that it is illogical to include drill cuttings in a test method that is intended to filter much smaller particles. According to Method 160.2, the practical range of material to be measured is 4 mg/l to 20,000 mg/l. However, as Industry petitioners point out, a representative drill cutting sample is over 1.1 million mg/l. 59 We are persuaded by Industry's argument that EPA has arbitrarily classified drill cuttings as TSS. It is error for EPA to classify drill cuttings, typically on the magnitude of 1.1 million mg/l, by measuring TSS using a test designed to include only particles smaller than 20,000 mg/l. Despite the deference due to EPA in its choice of analytical methodology and testing procedures, it is apparent to this Court that most drill cuttings may not qualify as TSS because they are not suspended. Our view is further bolstered by another of EPA's own tests, Method 160.5, which measures residue classified as settleable. 40 C.F.R. Sec. 136.3, Table 1B (1994). The drill cuttings discharged from the oil and gas development and production phases should not be measured by Method 160.2 unless they fit within that test's practical guidelines. 60 Despite our belief that EPA may have erred in classifying drill cuttings as TSS, it appears senseless here to remand this portion of the Final Rule. Because BAT and NSPS for drill cuttings require the same technological control on drill cuttings as BCT, that is, zero discharge within three nautical miles of shore and no discharge of free oil beyond three miles, altering BCT in this case would not change the result. Furthermore, even if EPA improperly classified drill cuttings as TSS, the agency is not precluded from regulating drill cuttings as an indicator for oil and grease. It is well documented that once drill cuttings are separated from the reusable drilling mud, they continue to carry drilling fluid residues of conventional and toxic pollutants. It is apparent in this specific situation that altering BCT would not in any way change the treatment of drill cuttings in the Gulf of Mexico, California, or Alaska. In this case, therefore, we will not disturb the EPA's treatment of drill cuttings as TSS in the Final Rule although we find some merit in Industry petitioners' allegation.