Posted on October 28, 2014 by Ridgway Hall
Many Clean Water Act practitioners will have their eyes on the Third Circuit on November 18 when oral argument has been set on an appeal from a decision upholding EPA’s issuance of a multi-state Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The Chesapeake Bay TMDL, issued in December, 2010, is the biggest EPA has ever set, covering parts of 6 states and the District of Columbia. As I reported in a blog article a year ago on September 13, 2013, in a 99 page decision the Middle District of Pennsylvania upheld the TMDL against numerous challenges by the American Farm Bureau Federation, other agricultural trade associations and the American Home Builders Association. Those organizations appealed, and a flurry of intervenor and amicus briefs have been filed on both sides.
The issues raised by the appellants are whether EPA exceeded its statutory authority when (1) it set pollutant allocations for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment on a watershed-wide basis, and then, by agreement with the states, subdivided them by state and by major river basin; and (2) it insisted that states provide “reasonable assurance” that they would implement measures reasonably calculated to achieve compliance with the TMDL within agreed-upon timetables.
As described in the district court decision, the Chesapeake Bay TMDL has a long history, including more than 25 years of cooperative but unsuccessful efforts by the Bay states, working together and with EPA, to design and implement programs to reduce the large amounts of nutrients and sediment flowing annually into the Bay. This pollution has contributed to the decimation of oysters, blue crabs and other fish, destruction of hundreds of acres of bay grasses, and significant economic, recreational and cultural losses throughout the watershed. Because of the inherently interstate nature of the pollution, and the inability of one state to stem pollution in another state, the states in 2007 asked EPA to set a multistate TMDL, which EPA did. At the heart of the legal dispute are issues of “cooperative federalism” – the proper roles for the states and EPA and the limits of EPA authority under Clean Water Act Section 303, which gives only minimal guidance on TMDL implementation. The district court decision addressed several issues of first impression and, in upholding EPA’s actions, provided a thoughtful analysis and helpful guidance.
The precedential significance of this case has not escaped states, cities and other interested parties elsewhere in the country. Briefs have been filed by intervening environmental groups, wastewater treatment agencies and municipal authorities in support of EPA. In addition at least 10 amicus briefs have been filed on behalf of over 100 other entities. A group of 21 attorneys general, mostly from western and Mississippi Valley states, filed a brief in support of the appellants. They were joined by a group of counties, and much later by a group of 39 Congressmen. Amicus briefs were filed in support of EPA by the states of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia (all in the Chesapeake Watershed). Also supporting EPA are a brief by the cities of New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, and a separate brief for the City of Annapolis, plus two amicus briefs by groups of environmental organizations and a brief by 19 environmental law professors from around the country.
One of the interesting features of this case is that none of the EPA actions challenged by the appellants were forced by the agency on unwilling states. The “reasonable assurance” features are contained in “watershed implementation plans” drafted by each state. The deadlines are not inflexible, cannot be enforced by EPA, and were agreed to by the states. In fact on June 16, 2014, all 6 Bay states, the District of Columbia and EPA signed a new Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement reaffirming their commitment to the TMDL and the implementation measures. So stay tuned! The courtroom will likely be SRO, and I’ll be back to you after a decision.
Tags: Clean Water Act, TMDL, Chesapeake Bay, interstate pollution, cooperative federalism