St. Bernard Citizens for Env'L. v. Chalmette Ref.

• Decision Date: 03 February 2005
• Docket Number: No. Civ.A. 04-0398.,Civ.A. 04-0398.
• Citation: 354 F.Supp.2d 697
• Parties: ST. BERNARD CITIZENS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, INC., and Louisiana Bucket Brigade v. CHALMETTE REFINING, L.L.C.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

354 F.Supp.2d 697

ST. BERNARD CITIZENS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, INC., and Louisiana Bucket Brigade v. CHALMETTE REFINING, L.L.C.

No. Civ.A. 04-0398.

United States District Court, E.D. Louisiana.

February 3, 2005.

Adam Babich, Andre Shiromani, John Pint, Christopher Ralph Brown, Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiffs.

Mark John Spansel, Glen Marion Pilie, Jane C. Raiford, Adams & Reese, New Orleans, LA, for Defendant.

ORDER AND REASONS

VANCE, District Judge.

Plaintiffs St. Bernard Citizens for Environmental Quality, Inc. and Louisiana Bucket Brigade move for partial summary judgment on liability and standing. Defendant Chalmette Refining, L.L.C. opposes the standing portion of the motion. For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS plaintiffs' motion as to both standing and liability.

I. BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiffs are nonprofit corporations formed to address environmental issues in St. Bernard Parish and in Louisiana. On February 12, 2004, and by amended complaint on February 20, 2004, plaintiffs sued Chalmette under the citizen suit provision of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7604(a), and the citizen suit provision of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, 42 U.S.C. § 11046(b)(1). Plaintiffs allege that Chalmette has violated and continues to violate (1) hourly permit emission limits for various harmful pollutants, (2) flare performance standards and monitoring requirements, (3) benzene emission limits for its storage tanks, (4) State reporting requirements for "unauthorized discharges" of pollutants and (5) EPCRA reporting requirements. Plaintiffs allege that these violations endanger the health and damage the quality of life of their members who live near Chalmette's refinery. Plaintiffs request a declaration that Chalmette has committed these violations, an injunction requiring Chalmette to cease the violations, civil penalties and attorney's fees. 42 U.S.C. § 7604(g).

Plaintiffs now move for partial summary judgment on liability and standing. The Court heard oral argument on the motion, and it has considered the briefs of the parties. For the following reasons, the Court grants the motion.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

Summary judgment is appropriate when there are no genuine issues as to any material facts, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). A court must be satisfied that no reasonable trier of fact could find for the nonmoving party or, in other words, "that the evidence favoring the nonmoving party is insufficient to enable a reasonable jury to return a verdict in her favor." Lavespere v. Niagara Mach. & Tool Works, Inc., 910 F.2d 167, 178 (5th Cir.1990) (citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)). The moving party bears the burden of establishing that there are no genuine issues of material fact.

III. DISCUSSION

Congress created the Clean Air Act "to protect and enhance the quality of the Nation's air resources so as to promote the public health and welfare." 42 U.S.C. § 7401(b)(1). The Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401, et seq., is a comprehensive program for controlling and improving the nation's air quality. Under the Act, the Environmental Protection Agency identifies air pollutants that endanger the public health or welfare, determines what concentrations of those pollutants are safe and promulgates those determinations as national ambient air quality standards. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 7408, 7409. Each state bears responsibility for ensuring that its ambient air meets the appropriate NAAQS, see 42 U.S.C. § 7407(a), and must develop a state implementation plan to achieve the standards established by the EPA. See 42 U.S.C. § 7410(a). The Act requires state implementation plans to include "enforceable emission limitations and other control measures, means, or techniques... as well as schedules and timetables for compliance" to meet the NAAQS. 42 U.S.C. § 7410(a)(2)(A). Louisiana's implementation plan requires permits for discharges of air pollutants. La.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 30:2055. The Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality issues permits in accordance with federal and state law and LDEQ regulations. La.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 30:2504.

The Act includes a citizen suit provision that allows citizens to request injunctive relief and civil penalties, payable to the United States Treasury, for the violation of any "emission standard or limitation" under the Act. 42 U.S.C. § 7604(a). Plaintiffs sue Chalmette under this citizen suit provision for violating emissions limits set by permits issued by the LDEQ under the Act.

A. Standing

Plaintiffs move for summary judgment on the issue of whether they have standing to bring this action under the Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act's citizen suit provision authorizes "any person" to "commence a civil action on his own behalf against any person ... who is alleged to have violated (if there is evidence that the alleged violation has been repeated) or to be in violation of (A) an emissions standard or limitation under this chapter." 42 U.S.C. § 7604(a) (emphasis added). Plaintiffs make allegations that come within this statutory language. And, because Congress authorized "any person" to commence a civil suit and defined "person" to include "an individual, corporation, partnership, [or] association," statutory standing to sue under the Clean Air Act extends to the outer boundaries set by the "case or controversy" requirement of Article III of the Constitution. See Ecological Rights Found. v. Pacific Lumber Co., 230 F.3d 1141, 1147 (9th Cir.2000) (interpreting same language authorizing "any person" to sue under the Clean Water Act). Accordingly, if plaintiffs have standing under Article III, they also have statutory standing under the Clean Air Act.

Thus, the Court must determine whether plaintiffs have Article III standing to bring this citizen suit. The standing issue is a threshold matter of jurisdiction. Texans United for a Safe Econ. Educ. Fund v. Crown Cent. Petroleum Corp., 207 F.3d 789, 792 (5th Cir.2000). The requirement that a party have standing flows from the Article III requirement that there be a "case or controversy." U.S. Const. Art. III, § 2, cl. 1. Standing analysis focuses on whether "a party has a sufficient stake in an otherwise justiciable controversy to obtain judicial resolution of that controversy." Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 732, 92 S.Ct. 1361, 31 L.Ed.2d 636 (1972). To prevail on a summary judgment motion, the plaintiff may not rest on mere allegations to support standing, but instead, must produce affidavits or other evidence to prove that standing exists. See Gladstone Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 115 n. 31, 99 S.Ct. 1601, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979).

In this suit, plaintiffs seek to represent the interests of their members. Organizations like plaintiffs have standing to bring a suit on behalf of their members if: (1) their members would have standing to sue in their own right; (2) the interests they seek to protect are germane to their purpose as an organization; and (3) neither the claim asserted, nor the relief requested, requires the participation of individual members. Texans United, 207 F.3d at 792.

Plaintiffs have produced evidence to demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact as to the second and third elements of this test. For the second element, plaintiffs submit an affidavit from Kenneth Ford, the president of St. Bernard Citizens, who states that one of the purposes of his organization is to protect "the organization's members and other St. Bernard Parish residents from pollution coming from the surrounding petrochemical industry." (Pls.' Mot. Summ. J., Ex. II at ¶ 4). Ford also states that the interests that St. Bernard Citizens seeks to protect in this lawsuit are directly related to that organizational purpose. (Id. at ¶ 5). Similarly, Anne Rolfes, the Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, states in her affidavit that one of the purposes of the Bucket Brigade is to address "environmental health and justice issues in Louisiana." (Id., Ex. KK at ¶ 4). She also states that the interests that the Bucket Brigade seeks to protect in this lawsuit are directly related to that organizational purpose. (Id. at ¶¶ 4, 7). Chalmette has not contradicted these assertions or briefed this issue. Accordingly, plaintiffs have established that there is no genuine issue of material fact that the interests that plaintiffs seek to protect are germane to their organizational purpose.

Plaintiffs have also satisfied the third part of the test. Plaintiffs argue that because they do not seek monetary damages or particularized relief limited to a single person or group, their lawsuit does not require the participation of individual members of the organizations. Because neither the claim plaintiffs assert, nor the relief they request, requires individualized proof, "both are ... properly resolved in a group context." See Hunt v. Washington State Apple Adver. Comm'n, 432 U.S. 333, 344, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977). Again, Chalmette has not contradicted plaintiffs' assertions or briefed the issue. Accordingly, plaintiffs have established that this lawsuit does not require the participation of individual members of the organizations.

The only remaining question, then, is whether the plaintiffs' members would have standing to sue in their own right. To prevail on their motion for summary judgment on standing, the individual members must show that there is an absence of a genuine issue as to whether: (1) they have suffered an actual or threatened injury; (2) the injury is "fairly traceable" to the defendant's action; and (3) the injury will likely be redressed if the plaintiffs prevail in the lawsuit. Texans United, 207 F.3d at 792...