ELR Citation: ELR 20066
No(s). 05-2231 (1st Cir. Mar 30, 2006)

The court upholds the dismissal of a power plant owner's suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for refusing to grant its request for a formal evidentiary hearing on the plant's national pollutant discharge elimination system permit. Because there was no clear and unambiguous congressional intent behind the word "public hearing" in the Clean Water Act, the court deferred to EPA's reasonable interpretation of the statutory language. Thus, no nondiscretionary duty to grant the power plant an evidentiary hearing on its permit application exists.