ELR Citation: ELR 20744
No(s). 73-3540 (5th Cir. Aug 5, 1974)

On petitions to review an order of the Administrator, the court upholds EPA's disapproval of the Texas implementation plan for the control of photochemical oxidants, but rules that certain of the additional regulations which the agency proposed to insure attainment of the applicable air quality standards are either invalid or must be deferred for further agency consideration. EPA's decisions to reject Texas' proposed reduction model and to substitute a straight rollback model instead were not arbitrary or capricious. Nor were the agency's rejection of the state's inventory of the reactive/nonreactive makeup of chemical plant and petroleum refining hydrocarbon emissions, and its substitution of a reactivity factor for chemical processing emissions. EPA's choice of such a factor for refinery emissions was arbitrary, however, since it was insufficiently explicated, and has a substantial effect upon whether additional transportation and land use controls not contained in the state's plan, but imposed by EPA are needed in the Houston area. These controls must therefore be deferred pending agency reconsideration of its refinery reactivity factor. The court goes on to grant compliance date extensions for certain air quality control regions (AQCRs) within the state, and upholds various vapor recovery and vehicle inspection regulations in some AQCRs while deferring them pending reconsideration by EPA in others.

Counsel for Petitioners
John L. Hill Attorney General
Mike Willatt
Larry F. York
Philip K. Maxwell Asst. Attorneys General
P.O. Box 12548
Capitol Station
Austin, TX 78711

Thomas M. Phillips
Larry B. Feldcamp
Baker & Botts
3000 One Shell Plaza
Houston, TX 77002

Counsel for Intervenor Harris County
Joseph Resweber County Attorney
Charles J. Wilson Asst. County Attorney
202 Harris County Courthouse
Houston, TX 77002

Counsel for Respondent
Wallace H. Johnson Asst. Attorney General
Edmund B. Clark
George R. Hyde
Department of Justice
Washington, DC 20530

John Bonine
Office of General Counsel
Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20460