Court Opinion

ID: 9464863
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:45:00.743012+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:51.448811
License: Public Domain

MacKINNON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part: The majority opinion concludes with respect to organics :
In furtherance of our function and responsibility, we remand the record with a request to EPA to report to this court within 60 days regarding significant changes that have occurred, since the promulgation of the interim regulations, in its assessment of the problem of controlling organic contaminants in drinking water, and to advise the court of its determinations — as of the time of the report — as to whether it plans to propose amended interim regulations in light of newly acquired data.
188 U.S.App.D.C. at -, 578 F.2d at 346. I concur in this part of the opinion. However, I dissent from the affirmance of the Agency’s action with respect to lead and cadmium. The Agency defends its regulation by statistics that are based on source water, not on statistics gathered at the point of final distribution. It also relies on testimony that in my view is not sufficiently extensive, particularly in view of the fact that lead and cadmium pollution is admittedly caused by spotty factors, i. e., somewhat by the type of conduits used in various locations and the corrosiveness of the water. The contentions of the Fund, in this respect, seem to me to be logical; and since they are not answered by the Agency, I would remand those portions of the regulations for more extensive testing and reconsideration in the light thereof.
With respect to the Agency’s regulations on inorganic substances, I would uphold them, in the main, for the reasons outlined in the majority opinion, but I would not confine the study of fluoride to its dental effects when it is also suspect of causing some changes in bone density.