Opinion ID: 519994
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The EPA's Rejection of Sequential Treatment Options

Text: 167 NRDC argues that the EPA, in choosing biological treatment plus clarification (Option I) for BPT, improperly rejected other sequential options. Specifically, these options were polishing ponds (Option II) and multimedia filtration (Option III), either of which can be sequentially added to a system already utilizing biological treatment plus clarification. 109 NRDC makes specific arguments with regard to both technologies; these arguments will next be further explored. 168 NRDC objects on several grounds to the EPA's failure to base BPT on Option II technology, which is biological treatment with clarification followed by polishing ponds. First, NRDC argues that the EPA's conclusion that polishing ponds are not currently used by a representative portion of the industry is incorrect. In support of this, NRDC points out that 64 plants in the industry use polishing ponds, and, of those, 17 meet the EPA's final editing criteria. 110 The EPA defends its conclusion by initially noting that the OCPSF industry is diverse and as a result plants have significantly different wastestream characteristics. Since only 17 plants out of 64 which had installed polishing ponds were able to meet the BPT editing criteria, the EPA in its judgment concluded that polishing ponds are not a sufficiently effective technology upon which to base the BPT limits. Moreover, the question is not merely whether the fact that 17 out of 64 plants using polishing ponds were able to meet the BPT editing criteria proves that polishing ponds are effective, but also whether the experiences of these 17 plants can be applied to the 304 plants subject to regulation. The EPA concluded that this was not possible due to the diverse nature of the industry. 111 The EPA also balanced the questionable feasibility of using polishing ponds against the cost of acquiring the large amounts of land needed for them and concluded that feasibility had not been sufficiently demonstrated to serve as a basis for BPT limitations. 112 We find the EPA's judgment in this regard to be rational and well supported by the record. 169 NRDC next argues that the EPA's position that the majority of plants using polishing ponds do not meet the BPT criteria shows that the industry is inadequate as a whole. The NRDC quotes from the preamble to the final rule where the EPA noted that plants using polishing ponds in the OCPSF industry have done so not to add another treatment step after effective Option I level biological treatment but rather to improve upon substandard biological treatment. 113 The EPA responds that this quote is taken out of context. Again noting the diverse nature of the industry to be regulated, the EPA stresses that the plants did not use ponds to remedy inadequate performance which can be attributed to the model technology, but rather because these particular plants had unique and complex wastestreams which required additional treatment. 170 NRDC further alleges that the EPA's analysis of the data for Option II plants is flawed because the EPA compared the performance of Option II plants to all plants in the industry, which includes plants using Options I, II, and III. Thus, the EPA essentially compared plants using Option II against a class which also contained Option II plants; this tended to improve the performance of the latter class, masking the true benefits of ponds. NRDC contends that the EPA should have compared Option II plants to all other plants which do not use Option II. The EPA admits that NRDC's suggested approach is the better one, but notes that it corrected its error in the preamble to the final rule by comparing Option II plants to Option I plants. 114 The EPA corrected this error in promulgating the final rule, and the corrected data support the EPA's conclusion. 171 NRDC claims, in similar fashion to its above argument regarding polishing ponds, that the EPA improperly rejected Option III as a BPT sequential treatment option. NRDC claims that multimedia filtration results in significant improvements in TSS removal, but the EPA cites data which indicate that NRDC's claim is unfounded. 115 Specifically, the EPA rejected filtration as unproven because, of the 11 of 28 plants with filtration that satisfied the EPA's editing criteria, all 11 had other processes in addition to filters, and there was no evidence that the plants would not have satisfied the BPT criteria even without filters. 116 Due to the diversity of the OCPSF industry, the EPA determined that the data from 11 plants did not demonstrate the effectiveness of filters throughout the industry, and we defer to the EPA's determination. 172