Opinion ID: 705105
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Method 413.1

Text: 26 Industry petitioners contest the BAT and NSPS limits set by EPA for produced water. According to the Final Rule, BAT and NSPS limit the discharge of oil and grease to a 30-day average of 29 mg/l and a daily maximum of 42 mg/l by using improved performance gas flotation. Industry petitioners do not contest the use of improved gas flotation for obtaining BAT and NSPS; in fact, they approve of that technology and previously encouraged EPA to adopt gas flotation during the rulemaking process. However, Industry petitioners maintain that improved gas flotation removes only dispersed oil and grease from produced water; allegedly, the technology cannot remove dissolved oil from produced water. EPA has chosen to use a process known as EPA Method 413.1 to measure the levels of oil and grease in produced water, and therein lies the problem. According to Industry petitioners, Method 413.1 measures the content in the produced water of both the dispersed oil and grease, which the improved gas flotation technology can remove, and the dissolved oil, which the technology cannot remove, and it is not feasible to achieve the requisite BAT and NSPS levels using the total oil and grease content of the produced water as measured by Method 413.1. 27 When promulgating the Final Rule, EPA identified two methods of measuring oil and grease in produced water. EPA Method 413.1 mixes freon with a produced water sample. The freon and water then separate and the freon, which has attached to oil and grease in the water, is removed from the sample. The freon is then distilled out by heating, leaving a residue which, when weighed, indicates how much oil and grease was contained in the produced water sample. Standard Method 503E follows the same steps as Method 413.1; however, before the freon is distilled, a silica gel is added, which adsorbs water-soluble polar material. 10 The silica gel is then removed from the freon, the freon is distilled, and the residue is weighed to derive the level of oil and grease. Industry petitioners contend that because Method 503E does not measure dissolved oil, EPA should use Method 503E rather than Method 413.1 which does measure dissolved oil. EPA disputes that the silica gel used in Method 503E actually removes dissolved oil per se. EPA argues that the polar matter removed by the silica gel is made up of some of the soluble matter in produced water, but not necessarily all the dissolved oil in produced water. 28 EPA contends that the use of Method 413.1 provides more accurate and complete data to assess the treatment system. As EPA points out, it has consistently used Method 413.1 throughout the rulemaking process, including the calculation of all produced water levels that are set by the Final Rule. Furthermore, EPA also contends that improved gas flotation can be used to remove dissolved oil. 11 29 According to Industry petitioners, EPA's use of Method 413.1 violates both the CWA and the APA by ignoring relevant factors. The CWA requires BAT and NSPS to be based, in part, on approximately seven factors, including cost and nonwater quality environmental impacts. Industry petitioners contend that EPA has failed to demonstrate that improved gas flotation is available and achievable because the agency failed to consider the dissolved oil component of produced water. In another case challenging EPA effluent limitations, Association of Pacific Fisheries v. EPA, 615 F.2d 794 (9th Cir.1980), the Ninth Circuit remanded an EPA regulation to the agency for further findings because EPA had relied on a study that failed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the required technology. Id. at 819. The Ninth Circuit found that EPA had failed in its duty to articulate the reasons for its determination and had therefore failed to satisfy the requirements of the CWA in setting the effluent guidelines. Id. (citing Appalachian Power Co. v. EPA, 477 F.2d 495, 507 (4th Cir.1973)). 30 In the present case, however, EPA has pointed to empirical data in the rulemaking record showing that so-called dissolved oil is treated and removed by improved gas flotation. EPA points to a study entitled Oil Content in Produced Brine on Ten Louisiana Production Platforms (the Ten Platform Study), which documented oil and grease measurements under both Method 413.1 and Method 503E. Using the Ten Platform Study, EPA estimated the percentage of oil and grease removed by the gas flotation technique. According to EPA's estimates, gas flotation was used to remove dissolved oil ranging from a low of 58 percent up to a high of 98 percent. Unlike the situation in Association of Pacific Fisheries, therefore, here, EPA has relied on studies demonstrating that improved gas flotation is effective. 31 Industry petitioners point to numerous other sources within the record providing evidence that dissolved oil is not removable by improved gas flotation. Despite this evidence, however, we cannot find that EPA has failed to produce scientific data to support the agency's counterargument that gas flotation does remove at least some dissolved oil from produced water. This Court must defer to EPA's discretionary judgment when EPA has made a reasonable decision based on reliable data. 32 We are also persuaded by the fact that Method 413.1 was the method used when setting the BAT and NSPS limits. In setting the limits, EPA used the median platform from the 83 Platform Composite Study. 12 In other words, 50 percent of the platforms in the study discharged higher levels of pollutant, and 50 percent of the platforms discharged lower levels of pollutant. The daily maximum limitation was set so that there would be a 99 percent likelihood that a physical composite sample taken from the median platform would have a total oil and grease measurement less than or equal to that limitation. The monthly average was set so that there would be a 95 percent probability that a monthly average taken from the median platform would also be less than or equal to that limitation. EPA estimates that 60 percent of the platforms in the composite of 83 platforms already meet the new BAT limitations. For those platforms that do not already meet the new BAT standard, chemical coagulants can be used to improve the removal of dissolved or soluble oil. 13 33 In light of the deference due the EPA, especially concerning scientific and technical data, Industry petitioners have not proven their claim that improved gas flotation does not remove dissolved oil or that EPA violated either the CWA or the APA by using Method 413.1 to measure oil and grease in produced water.