Opinion ID: 195693
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Dilution Calculations

Text: 67 Adams contends that the Agency should have granted his request for an evidentiary hearing on the issue of whether the EPA properly calculated the dilution limits of the effluent. A generous reading of Adams' evidentiary request indicates that he believed that the EPA improperly calculated dilution limits and, because of these improper calculations, the EPA failed properly to consider the effect of viruses on marine life and the viruses' indirect effect on humans. Additionally, Adams claimed that even if the EPA properly calculated the dilution limit, the Agency still failed to evaluate the effect of viruses. Adams stated that this was a direct violation of 40 C.F.R. Sec. 125.122(a)(6), which required the rescission of the entire permit. 68 The Regional Administrator denied Adams' request because he failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact. The EAB did not disturb this finding. 69 As a preliminary matter, as we have previously noted, the EPA relied on the New Hampshire state certification when it issued the Seabrook permit. When Seabrook applied for its permit, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services analyzed the draft permit to ensure that the permit effluent conditions were stringent enough to assure that the discharge would not violate state water quality standards, which were designed to protect public health and recreational activities in and on the water. See N.H.Code Admin.R. [N.H. Dept. of Environmental Services, Water Supply & Pollution Control Div.] Env-Ws 430.01 (1990) (stating that New Hampshire's water quality standards are intended to protect public health and welfare and provide for the protection and propagation of a balanced indigenous population of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic organisms and wildlife, and provide for such uses as recreational activities in and on the waters). The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services then concluded that if the permit was modified to incorporate a maximum daily total coliform limit to be measured on a daily basis, state certification would be granted. According to the state certification, the mandated coliform limit was necessary because the affected water was used for the growing or taking of shellfish for human consumption. The EPA then incorporated the required coliform limits when it issued the final permit. 70 The EPA did not act arbitrarily or capriciously when it found that Adams failed to show why the EPA's reliance on New Hampshire's certification, which provided for coliform limits to protect the public's health, was inadequate. Adams failed to point to data in the record which established that the proposed discharge would cause unreasonable degradation of the marine environment, because the discharge would threaten human health through direct or indirect pathways, through the presence of viruses. See 40 C.F.R. Secs. 125.122(a)(6), 125.121(e)(2). Rather, Adams simply believed that the EPA should establish effluent limits for viruses as an alternative or additional measure to protect human health. The EPA pointed out, however, that New Hampshire regulates coliform bacteria as an indicator for the presence of human wastes, and this limit was designed to protect the designated uses of swimming, fishing, and other recreational purposes. Additionally, the Regional Administrator noted that: [i]t is EPA's judgment that attempting to establish a separate virus effluent limit here would be inadvisable due to, among other things, problems in detection relating to their small size, low concentrations, variety and instability in the presence of interfering solids, and limits on availability of identification methods. The EPA found, and we agree, that Adams did not point to any evidence from which a decisionmaker could find that the State of New Hampshire failed properly to evaluate the discharge's effect on human health because it did not require effluent limits for viruses. 71 To support his statement that the EPA improperly calculated dilution limits, Adams relied on a September 4, 1991 letter from Martin Dowgert, a Regional Shellfish Specialist with the FDA to Mr. Richard Roach of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the FDA letter), which was a part of the administrative record. 12 The FDA letter calls for the establishment of a larger safety zone closed for shellfishing around the proposed treatment plant outfall, and an area subject to conditional closure in the event of plant disinfection failure. To support his opinion that a larger safety zone needed to be created, Dowgert stated that based on the FDA's preliminary assessment, a shellfish closure zone would occur in an area represented by a 1000:1 dilution line, and this zone would be an area 4,000 feet from the outfall. Adams claimed that this reference was at odds with dilution limits used by the EPA, which Adams failed to specify. 13 72 The EPA did not construe Adams' reference to the FDA letter as raising a genuine issue of material fact regarding the dilution limits, noting that the FDA did not call for the NPDES permit to be denied, or for a revision of any term of the NPDES permit. We do not believe that this finding was arbitrary or capricious because Adams did not show how this alleged miscalculation was material to the permitting process. Subsequent to the FDA letter, New Hampshire issued its certification after evaluating the effects of the discharge and concluding that if its maximum coliform limits were incorporated, the discharge would satisfy state water quality criteria. The EPA then incorporated those limits, requiring that the Seabrook plant comply with them. Adams did not point to anything in the FDA letter which called into question New Hampshire's mandated coliform limits. Rather, Adams claimed that the EPA originally miscalculated dilution limits, but then failed to show what the effects of the alleged miscalculation were, or how the alleged miscalculation affected the New Hampshire certification process. 73