ELR Citation: ELR 20615
No(s). 93-1758 (D.C. Cir. Feb 21, 1995)

The court dismisses without prejudice as unripe a chemical company's petition for review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) national primary drinking water regulation for the herbicide atrazine and remands to EPA to reconsider the appropriate maximum contaminant level (MCL) and MCL goal (MCLG). More than two years after EPA issued the final rule, the Agency published a revised reference dose for atrazine. Under the method EPA used in the final rule, the revised reference dose would yield a higher MCLG. The day after filing its petition for judicial review of the rule's atrazine MCL and MCLG under SDWA §1448(a) in this court, the company filed a petition with EPA seeking reconsideration and revision of the atrazine MCL and MCLG and a stay of their effectiveness on account of the new reference dose. EPA denied the petition. The court first dismisses the company's petition for judicial review for lack of ripeness. The petition in this court seeks review only of the final rule, not of EPA's denial of the reconsideration petition. The court holds that the petition for judicial review would be ripe for review but for the company's failure to file a petition for review of EPA's reconsideration petition denial, which has deprived the court of a complete record of EPA's proceedings. The court remands the case to EPA to develop a reviewable record and, in the interest of judicial economy, to reconsider whether to revise the atrazine MCL and MCLG in light of the new reference dose.

Counsel for Petitioner
Cara S. Jablon
King & Spalding
1730 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC 20006
(202) 737-0500

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

Before HENDERSON, RANDOLPH, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.