Opinion ID: 187435
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: New York County Designations

Text: New York challenges the nonattainment designations of five counties surrounding New York City: Suffolk, Westchester, Nassau, Orange, and Rockland  collectively the outer counties. We find New York's claims without merit, except for its challenge to the designation of Rockland County, which we remand to EPA for additional explanation. New York makes several broad challenges to the designations of the outer counties. Most generally, the state argues that EPA's designations lack a rational basis and that EPA failed to respond to the comments New York submitted. To justify the nonattainment designations for Westchester, Suffolk, and Nassau Counties, EPA cites their high emissions, population, traffic, and commuting patterns. For Orange County, EPA relies on high emissions, as indicated by a weighted emissions score ranking it fifth in the CMSA. EPA also relies on meteorological data to show that wind blows from each of the outer counties toward the violating monitors some percentage of the time. Technical Support Document at 6-24 to -36. EPA considered and responded in some detail to New York's comments challenging the designations. Responses to Comments EPA Region 2 at 2-9 to -14. We find that EPA's basis for designating Suffolk, Westchester, Nassau, and Orange Counties can reasonably be discerned from the record. See Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983) (We will ... `uphold a decision of less than ideal clarity if the agency's path may reasonably be discerned.' (quoting Bowman Transp., Inc. v. Arkansas-Best Freight Sys., Inc., 419 U.S. 281, 286, 95 S.Ct. 438, 42 L.Ed.2d 447 (1974))). New York next contends that EPA did not correctly take into account commuting data for the outer counties and points to its own data showing that only 13% of outer county commuters drive to New York City. States' Opening Br. 39. EPA responds that the relevant factor on which it relied was not the percentage of commuters but rather the raw number of commuters. New York correctly highlights the inconsistency in EPA's treatment of Rockland County's commuter data, which is discussed below, but as to the other counties, New York's arguments are not persuasive. The Technical Support Document shows that Westchester and Nassau Counties each have over 100,000 commuters to New York and Bronx Counties. Technical Support Document at 6-29. Suffolk County has fewer commuters to New York and Bronx Counties (roughly 44,000), but it has higher Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) than either Westchester or Nassau Counties, likely due to its location on eastern Long Island. Id. New York is correct that Orange County's commuter numbers and VMT are far lower than any of the other three counties, id., but EPA based Orange County's nonattainment designation on its high emissions, not its commuter numbers, id. at 6-24. EPA's reliance on commuting data is supported by the record, which shows significant numbers of commuters and VMT for Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties. New York also maintains that EPA impermissibly changed its theory of outer county contribution from contribution to a violating monitor in New Haven, Connecticut, to contribution to violating monitors in Manhattan and the Bronx. EPA's initial rationale for designation in the Technical Support Document reads: Nassau County ranks high for emissions, population, traffic, and commuting patterns. In addition, an analysis of pollution roses and back trajectories to New Haven, CT showed a contribution from Nassau County. Id. Based on comments submitted by New York and Connecticut, EPA agreed that the violating New Haven monitor was not representative of community exposure and thus should not be the basis of designations. See id. at 6-35. EPA did not, however, change the outer counties' designations on this ground. New York's claim that EPA's continued nonattainment designations were arbitrary fails because EPA's rationale for the designations can be discerned from the Technical Support Document, which lists numerous reasons for designation other than contribution to the New Haven monitor. It is a reasonable reading of the Technical Support Document to attribute the list of factors, such as emissions and commuters, as referring to contribution to the violating monitors in Manhattan and the Bronx, while the initial rationale for contribution to New Haven was back trajectories and pollution roses. More important, New York is protesting the iterative process of revision that the CAA itself mandates: EPA revised its position in response to New York's comments. New York's underlying complaint is that the iterations should have continued, perhaps ad infinitum. But such a process is inconsistent with the CAA: Congress imposed deadlines on EPA and thus clearly envisioned an end to the designation process. Although we reject New York's challenge to the designations of Westchester, Suffolk, Nassau, and Orange Counties, the state's challenge to Rockland County's nonattainment designation has merit. EPA appears to have acted inconsistently in designating Rockland County as a nonattainment area. First, New York persuasively shows that Rockland's treatment was inconsistent with the treatment of other counties in the same CMSA that fall within a different EPA region. New York notes that EPA Region 1, which encompasses the CMSA's New England counties, employed what New York terms an 80% test in deciding which counties would be designated nonattainment. The Region 1 materials do not reference such a test, but New York is correct in its description of the process EPA Region 1 apparently employed. Region 1 dropped from nonattainment consideration Litchfield and Middlesex Counties in Connecticut and Hampden and Berkshire Counties in Massachusetts because: (1) none of these counties contain violating PM2.5 monitors, (2) none were recommended for nonattainment designation by the state, and (3) all have emissions scores ≤2.5. Id. at 6-6. Region 1 arrived at the 2.5 cutoff by ranking all of the CMSA counties from highest to lowest weighted emissions score, summing the weighted emissions scores from top to bottom, and drawing a line after the county at which the cumulative emissions score equaled 80%  thus, the 80% test. Any counties below the 80% line were dropped from further consideration if they did not contain a violating monitor and were not recommended by the state for a nonattainment designation. See id. at 6-4 to -6. Although this may be a reasonable approach in the abstract, New York's complaint is that, if this process had been applied in Region 2, which includes the New York counties, Rockland County would have been dropped from consideration instead of designated nonattainment. EPA responds that the 80% test was no test at all. But the agency's characterization is unavailing because no matter how Region 1's process is characterized, the fact remains that Rockland County would have been designated attainment if it had been in Region 1, but was designated nonattainment by EPA Region 2. Such inconsistent treatment is the hallmark of arbitrary agency action. Second, EPA's rationale for designating Rockland County changed between the initial designation and the final designation, with no apparent change in data. The only rationale EPA cited in its initial designation of Rockland was that Rockland is contiguous to ... Orange and Westchester Counties, both of which EPA designated as nonattainment. Id. at 6-24. In the initial designations, EPA characterized Rockland County's commuter numbers as low, id. at 6-31; when it revised its designations, EPA characterized Rockland County's commuter numbers as significant, though there was no intervening change in data, id. at 6-35. Third, and relatedly, New York argues that EPA treated Rockland County differently than Dutchess County in New York and Ocean County in New Jersey, both of which were designated attainment. New York notes that both counties have similar or worse values than Rockland on most or all of the factors EPA assessed. EPA's response, laid out in its brief to this court, is that of the factors New York cites, only commuting was significant for Rockland, and that Rockland's numbers of commuters to violating counties are three times the same statistic for Dutchess and Ocean Counties. EPA also notes that Rockland has large power plants, while Ocean County does not. EPA Br. 154. EPA's attempt to distinguish Rockland County does not withstand close inspection. First, EPA cannot rely on Rockland's power plants to distinguish Rockland from Ocean County because power plants are solely a proxy for emissions, and Rockland has lower emissions than either Ocean or Dutchess County. Second, EPA is correct that, while Rockland has three to four times the number of commuters to violating counties as the other two counties, EPA initially characterized Rockland's commuter numbers as low. The agency's later rhetorical revision of its characterization to significant is not justified by any change in the underlying data, which renders suspect EPA's reliance on commuters as the sole basis for distinguishing Rockland from the other two counties. In sum, Rockland County's nonattainment designation is troubling because of the apparent inconsistency in EPA's approach to designations in different EPA regions, EPA's varying characterizations of Rockland's statistics, and EPA's treatment of Rockland as compared to Dutchess and Ocean Counties. In light of the agency's scientific expertise and the complexity of the designation process, we remand to give EPA another opportunity to provide a coherent explanation for its designation. See, e.g., North Carolina v. EPA, 550 F.3d 1176 (D.C.Cir.2008).