Opinion ID: 3052381
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: NDAA and DSHMRA

Text: The EPA relies most heavily on two statutes. The first is the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996 (“NDAA”), Pub. L. No. 104-106, § 325, 110 Stat. 186, 254, codified at 33 U.S.C. §§ 1322(a), (j), (n), 1362(6). The second is the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act of 1979 (“DSHMRA”), Pub. L. No. 96-283, 94 Stat. 554, codified at 30 U.S.C. §§ 1419 et seq. [15] In the NDAA, Congress statutorily exempted discharges incidental to the normal operation of United States military vessels from CWA permitting requirements and established discharge controls specifically tailored to those vessels. Congress was well aware of 40 C.F.R. § 122.3(a) when it enacted the NDAA. Indeed, the statute cited the reguNORTHWEST ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES v. EPA 9053 lation as a partial aid in defining what the category “discharge incidental to the normal operation of a vessel” did not include. See 33 U.S.C. § 1322(a)(12)(B)(iii). A Senate Report accompanying the Senate Bill explained that discharges from military vessels, like those from other vessels, already were exempted from NPDES permitting requirements by EPA regulation. But the report went on to explain why, nonetheless, a broader exemption was desirable: The Navy wishes to clarify the regulatory status of certain non-sewage discharges from Navy vessels. Vessels are point sources of pollution under the Clean Water Act. Any discharge of pollutants from a point source, including a vessel, into the waters of the United States is prohibited unless specifically permitted under section 402 or 404 of the Act. . . . Although EPA regulations generally exempt non- sewage discharges from vessels from the permit requirements of the Act, some coastal states have imposed regulations or inspection programs that may have application to these types of discharges. A series of events in the waters of several coastal states prompted concern at the Navy as to state authorities to regulate these discharges. S. Rep. No. 104-113, at 1-2 (1995). The Senate Report explained that § 122.3(a) was the regulatory basis for the exemption of most “non-sewage discharges from vessels.” Id. at 7. The report did not, however, endorse or otherwise indicate approval of regulatory exemptions for entire categories of marine discharges. If anything, the report may be read to suggest the contrary. The report indicated that, but for the statutory exemption contained in the NDAA, the CWA permitting process would have applied to marine discharges from military vessels: “The effect of [the NDAA] is to remove the stat9054 NORTHWEST ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES v. EPA utory requirement for a permit for these point source discharges[.]” Id. at 3. [16] The most that can be said, based on the NDAA, is that Congress was well aware of § 122.3(a) and the exemptions it provided. Congress concluded that the existing statutory provisions and exemptions, including the exemptions provided in § 122.3(a), did not fully address the needs of military vessels. It therefore passed a new statute with provisions specifically tailored to military vessels. In so doing, the NDAA did nothing to endorse § 122.3(a). The NDAA only made § 122.3(a) irrelevant to military vessels except as a definitional tool. In the DSHMRA, Congress required vessels engaged in deep sea mining and drilling operations to comply with the provisions of the CWA. Congress did so by explicitly extending the CWA’s geographical reach over such vessels beyond the otherwise applicable three-mile limit. See 33 U.S.C. § 1362(9), (10), (12)(B). In pertinent part, the DSHMRA provided that: For purposes of this chapter, any vessel or other floating craft engaged in commercial recovery or exploration shall not be deemed to be “a vessel or other floating craft” under section 502(12)(B) of the Clean Water Act [33 U.S.C. § 1362(12)(B)] and any discharge of a pollutant from such vessel or other floating craft shall be subject to the Clean Water Act. 30 U.S.C. § 1419(e) (alterations in original). [17] When it enacted the DSHMRA, Congress noted with approval the final sentence of 40 C.F.R. § 122.3(a). This sentence provides that, despite the regulatory exemptions for three categories of marine discharges, CWA permitting requirements would apply to a range of vessels not being used for transportation: NORTHWEST ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES v. EPA 9055 This exclusion does not apply to . . . discharges when the vessel is operating in a capacity other than as a means of transportation such as when used as an energy or mining facility, a storage facility or a seafood processing facility, or when secured to a storage facility or a seafood processing facility, or when secured to the bed of the ocean, contiguous zone or waters of the United States for the purpose of min- eral or oil exploration or development. 40 C.F.R. § 122.3(a). Plaintiffs do not challenge this part of the regulation because it exempts nothing, but instead recognizes ongoing NPDES requirements. See Nw. Envtl. Advocates II, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69476, at -3 nn.1-2. [18] The Senate Report accompanying the DSHMRA noted with approval the refusal of § 122.3(a) to exempt nontransportation vessels from NPDES: [T]he Environmental Protection Agency has con- cluded that the Congress did not intend to exempt pollutant discharges into ocean waters by vessels when engaged in such activities as mining or drilling for oil, etc. Relying on this interpretation [of the CWA], the Environmental Protection Agency amended [its regulations] to indicate that vessels engaged in ocean mineral exploration, extraction and processing activities are not exempt from permit requirements under section 402. The Committee concurs in this interpretation. S. Rep. No. 96-360 at 2-3 (1979); see also id. at 3 (noting that the DSHMRA merely “clarif[ied] the application of section 402” to these vessels). Thus, the most that can be said of the DSHMRA is that Congress was aware of § 122.3(a) and explicitly approved of the EPA’s decision not to exempt from the permitting process marine discharges from nontransportation vessels. 9056 NORTHWEST ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES v. EPA [19] We conclude that neither the NDAA nor the DSH- MRA comes close to satisfying the SWANCC standard of providing “overwhelming evidence of acquiescence” by Congress in § 122.3(a)’s exemption of three categories of marine discharges.