Court Opinion

ID: 9487476
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:17:19.931695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:17.245141
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
This is a difficult case and my colleague has crafted a careful and thoughtful opinion. I am pleased to join all but one aspect of it.
I believe that the sludge at the bottom of Bethlehem’s finishing lagoons and the filtered sludge in its landfill are properly classified as F006 listed waste because these sludges are “wastewater treatment sludges from electroplating operations.” 40 C.F.R. § 261.31. In my view, the agency’s description is very clear and further specificity is not required. I note that the F006 listing specifically eliminates from its scope sludges produced by certain processes. If the agency believed that other exclusions, based for instance on the percentage of the sludge attributable to hazardous waste, were appropriate, it would have included such a specification.
ORDER
Jan. 30, 1995
In our opinion dated September 26, 1994, we vacated the District Court’s liability finding on counts two through six of the complaint and remanded to the District Court with instructions to enter partial summary judgment in favor of Bethlehem Steel Corporation on those counts. IT IS NOW ORDERED that the instruction to the District Court shall include vacation of that portion of its August 31, 1993, memorandum order, imposing civil penalties for violations alleged in counts two through six.