Mingo Claims MACT Ruling Shows Lack Of Cost Review Dooms CWA 'Veto'

摘要

Coal company Mingo Logan says the Supreme Court's ruling faulting EPA for not considering costs in deciding to craft a utility air toxics rule should also doom the agency's novel retrospective Clean Water Act (CWA) "veto" of disposal sites for a mountaintop mine Mingo is pursuing, because EPA did not weigh costs as part of the veto decision. EPA's "cavalier approach would not pass muster even outside the special context of vitiating a permit," argues Mingo in a Nov. 13 reply brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where the company is challenging EPA's decision to use CWA section 404(c) authority to revoke approval of the disposal sites. The agency argues that the water law only requires it to consider environmental harms in such decisions. The brief is available on InsideEPA.com. Seepage 2 for detials. (Doc. ID: 186554) EPA has exercised its section 404(c) authority only a handful of times, but the Mingo case marks a rare instance of the agency taking action after the Corps had already issued a final CWA permit.