ELR Citation: ELR 20747
No(s). 87-1092 (3d Cir. Mar 31, 1988)

The court holds that the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over a Clean Air Act citizen suit alleging that a Philadelphia sewage treatment plant violated odor regulations in the Pennsylvania state implementation plan (SIP) and properly held Philadelphia in civil contempt for violating an injunction prohibiting the plant from violating the odor regulations. The court first holds that the city's challenge to the district court's subject matter jurisdiction is moot. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deleted the odor regulations from the Pennsylvania SIP after the trial, another panel of this court later held that EPA's attempt to amend the SIP by directly deleting the odor regulations was invalid under the Clean Air Act and thus the odor regulations remain part of the SIP. The court next holds that the district court properly held the city in civil contempt for violations of the injunction. Plaintiffs met their burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence that the city had continued to violate the odor regulations, the district court was not required to find actual losses by plaintiffs to impose a coercive penalty, and the Supremacy Clause defeats the city's claim that the possibility that compensatory damages will be paid out of coercive fines violates state law.

Counsel for Appellants
Denise D. Colliers, Divisional Deputy City Solicitor
City of Philadelphia Law Department
1540 Municipal Services Bldg., 15th St. & John F. Kennedy Blvd., Philadelphia PA 19102-1692
(215) 686-1776

Counsel for Appellees
Jerome Balter
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
125 S. 9th St., Suite 700, Philadelphia PA 19107
(215) 627-7100

Before Scirica and Garth, JJ