ELR Citation: ELR 21505
No(s). 92-3200 (11th Cir. Aug 16, 1995)

The court holds that under Florida law, a state environmental agency lacks authority to extend an expired construction and testing permit pending its review of a county board's application for an injection well operating permit under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Deferring to the agency's interpretation of state law that an application for an operating permit was the equivalent of an application for renewal of a construction and testing permit, the district court had dismissed an environmental organization's claim that the board had been operating an injection well without a permit since the board's construction and testing permit expired. On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit had certified the question of the proper interpretation of state law to the Florida Supreme Court, which held that neither the state statute nor the administrative code operates to extend the expiration date on a construction and testing permit when an application for an operating permit has been submitted. The Eleventh Circuit holds that the Florida Supreme Court's answer to the certified question is determinative in this appeal. Both parties agree that the board operated its injection well after its construction and testing permit expired. The court thus holds that the agency was not authorized to extend the construction and testing permit, and that the board has been operating its injectin well without a permit since the expiration date.

[A prior decision in this litigation is published at 24 ELR 20664.]

Before TJOFLAT, Chief Judge, BIRCH, Circuit Judge, and HENDERSON, Senior Circuit Judge.