ELR Citation: ELR 21607
No(s). 93-1597 (1st. Cir. Jul 7, 1994)

The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not act arbitrarily or capriciously by not delaying further, at the request of Puerto Rico's Environmental Quality Board (EQB), its action to incorporate into an oil refiner's national pollution discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit a water quality certification that the EQB issued. After issuing certification for incorporation into the refiner's NPDES permit, the EQB asked EPA to delay issuance of a final NPDES permit pending its refiner-requested reconsideration of the certification. After delaying action for one year, EPA incorporated the certification into the refiner's NPDES permit. The court holds that nothing in the record suggests that the year-long period EPA afforded the EQB to review the certification was either unreasonable or arbitrary. The court also holds that incorporating the water quality certification into the refiner's NPDES permit was appropriate because the EQB neither issued a new certification nor stayed its original certification. The court noted that the EQB certification incorporated into the NPDES permit essentially comported with the effluent monitoring policy that the refiner had been subject to since it received its original permit.

Counsel for Petitioner
Karin G. Diaz-Toro
Goldman, Antonetti, Cordova & Axtmayer
American International Plaza
250 Munoz Rivera Ave. (Hato Rey), 14th & 15th Fls.
P.O. Box 70364, San Juan PR 00936
(809) 759-8000

Counsel for Respondent
Alan D. Greenberg
Environment and Natural Resources Division
U.S. Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530
(202) 514-2000

Before SELYA and CYR, Circuit Judges, and PETTINE,^* Senior District Judge.