Opinion ID: 458689
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: should the citizens' suit have been dismissed because it sought money damages?

Text: 28 In our view, the line of cases on which the district court relied does not control this dispute between appellants and EPA. National Sea Clammers, Kentucky Liquid Recycling, and Stepan Chemical are simply concerned with an entirely different issue. The plaintiffs in those cases did not allege, as appellants do here, that EPA owed them a lump sum of money but had refused to disburse it, and that they were entitled to the funds if the Administrator would only fulfill his duty. Rather, they were seeking to be made whole after incurring costs or suffering injuries as a result of the discharge of pollutants. 13 See National Sea Clammers, 453 U.S. at 4-7, 101 S.Ct. at 2618-19 (damage alleged to fishing industry by discharge of sewage into New York Harbor); Kentucky Liquid Recycling, 604 F.2d at 1010 (damage to water treatment plant allegedly caused by discharge of toxic chemicals into Ohio River); Stepan Chemical, 544 F.Supp. at 1139 (clean-up costs and consequential damages sought because of contamination of Delaware River by alleged illegal dumping of toxic waste). 29 Nor does reliance on Bushkill Township justify dismissal of appellants' suit. In the first place, Bushkill Township is clearly distinguishable because the plaintiff Sewer Authority in that case had not complied with the absolute sixty-day notice requirement of 33 U.S.C. Sec. 1365 and as a result had failed to meet even the threshold requirement of a valid citizens' suit. 14 Bushkill Township, 468 F.Supp. at 26. Second, in Bushkill Township the plaintiff alleged that EPA had refused to disburse federal grant funds after the Administrator had determined that he had improperly approved a proposed sewerage project and that reconsideration of the proposals was necessary. The Administrator's volte-face in that case was based on his clearly discretionary duties undertaken in evaluating a grant applicant's compliance with all laws and regulations. Id. at 25-26. Since the duty which plaintiffs alleged in Bushkill Township was discretionary, as a result of which the plaintiffs had no viable citizens' suit at all, Bushkill Township simply cannot be instructive for this case. Finally, the plaintiff authority and EPA already had entered into a valid contract for the provision of federal funds, and plaintiff's suit was essentially a claim of money damages for breach of contract. Id. at 25. The situation is different in this case, where Northern York and EPA have not yet entered into any contractual obligation, but where appellants allege that Northern York is entitled to approval of its grant application as a matter of law because of the Administrator's failure to perform his statutory nondiscretionary duties. 30 As we read the record, Northern York and Fairview are not seeking recompense for consequential damages for some wrongful act done in the past; rather, they seek funds which the Administrator allegedly controlled but refused to provide. The fact that the Administrator's fulfillment of his alleged statutory nondiscretionary duties might result in the disbursement of federal funds does not justify attaching the label money damages to the relief which appellants seek. We therefore hold that the district court erred when it dismissed appellants' citizens' suit because it sought money damages. We now turn to the other possible reason for lack of district court jurisdiction over the citizens' suit, namely the absence of any actual nondiscretionary duty. 15 31 IV. WAS THE ADMINISTRATOR UNDER A NONDISCRETIONARY DUTY TO REVIEW NORTHERN YORK'S APPLICATION WITHIN FORTY-FIVE DAYS OF RECEIPT FROM DER? 32 District court jurisdiction over citizens' suits depends on the existence of a duty alleged to be nondiscretionary with the Administrator; if no nondiscretionary duty exists, then neither can a citizens' suit. 33 U.S.C. Sec. 1365(a). The language of 33 U.S.C. Sec. 1299 provides that the forty-five day requirement operates [w]henever the Governor of a State ... has been delegated sufficient authority to administer the construction grant program. The viability of appellants' citizens' suit therefore depends on whether DER had been delegated sufficient authority to administer the ... program so that the Administrator had a nondiscretionary duty to approve or disapprove the Step III grant application within forty-five days of receipt from DER. EPA maintains that Sec. 1299 is not applicable to this case, because Northern York's application was not and could not be sufficiently certified by the state to trigger the forty-five day requirement. 16 33 Neither the language nor the legislative history of the section explains precisely what threshold of delegation constitutes sufficient authority on the part of the state. EPA maintains, and its contention is certainly reasonable, that Sec. 1299 would make little sense unless the state had been delegated all functions that could be delegated. If Sec. 1299 operates even when EPA retains some otherwise delegable functions, then an absurdity could arise: EPA would be responsible for performing the nondelegated functions, some of which might be very time-consuming, but EPA would also be required to complete its review of the grant application within forty-five days. Thus, EPA contends that applications, such as Northern York's, without an affordability analysis are not completely certified, and EPA must make the analysis itself without regard to the forty-five-day period. 34 We note that EPA's interpretation of the statute has since become the law due to the promulgation of regulations that deal explicitly with this issue. On May 12, 1982--while Northern York's application was before the Administrator for review--the Administrator published interim final regulations for the enforcement of Sec. 1299. 47 Fed.Reg. 20,462-63 (1982) (to be codified at 40 C.F.R. Sec. 35.2042(2)). The regulations provided that [w]hen EPA receives a certification covering all applicable Federal requirements, the Regional Administrator shall approve or disapprove the grant within 45 days of receipt. Id. (emphasis added). In their current form, the regulations state explicitly that the Administrator's duty to review an application within forty-five days applies only [w]hen EPA receives a certification covering all delegable pre-award requirements .... 40 C.F.R. Sec. 35.2041(2)(i) (1985) (emphasis added). 35 Northern York has failed to present any convincing explanation as to why EPA's eminently reasonable interpretation of Sec. 1299 should be rejected. We see no reason not to accord the Administrator's construction the deference that is usually owed to the interpretation of statutes by the agencies entrusted with their enforcement. See Train v. National Resource Defense Council, Inc., 421 U.S. 60, 87, 95 S.Ct. 1470, 1485, 43 L.Ed.2d 731 (1975); American Frozen Food Institute v. Train, 539 F.2d 107, 131 (D.C.Cir.1976). See also Pattern Makers' League of North America v. NLRB, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 3064, 3075-76, 87 L.Ed.2d 68 (1985); id. at ---- - ----, 105 S.Ct. at 3076-77 (White, J. concurring); Udall v. Tallman, 380 U.S. 1, 16, 85 S.Ct. 792, 801, 13 L.Ed.2d 616 (1965). 36 EPA's construction of the statute is, in fact, wholly persuasive given that the absolute forty-five day limit on the review of an application arises by statute once sufficient authority has been delegated to a state and the application has been certified by the state. We hold, therefore, that because DER had not been delegated all of EPA's delegable tasks, the Administrator of the EPA was not under a nondiscretionary duty to approve or disapprove Northern York's Step III application within forty-five days, 17 and that, as a result, 33 U.S.C. Sec. 1299 cannot be the basis for appellants' citizens' suit against the Administrator. 18 37