Town of Orangetown v. Gorsuch, 1

• Decision Date: 21 September 1983
• Docket Number: D,No. 1260,No. 1,1,1260
• Citation: 718 F.2d 29
• Parties: , 14 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,049 TOWN OF ORANGETOWN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Anne GORSUCH, Individually and as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency; Richard Dewling, Individually and as Regional Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency; Rockland County Sewer District; County of Rockland; Town of Ramapo; Town of Clarkstown; and Robert Flacke, as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Defendants-Appellees. 260, Docket 83-6035.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 29

718 F.2d 29

20 ERC 1125, 14 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,049

TOWN OF ORANGETOWN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Anne GORSUCH, Individually and as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency; Richard Dewling, Individually and as Regional Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency; Rockland County Sewer District No. 1; County of Rockland; Town of Ramapo; Town of Clarkstown; and Robert Flacke, as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 1260, Docket 83-6035.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued April 22, 1983.

Decided Sept. 21, 1983.

David Sive, New York City (Laurence B. Jones, Winer Neuburger & Sive, P.C., New York City, of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant Town of Orangetown.

Peter A.A. Berle, New York City (Carol A. Buckler, Berle, Butzel, Kass & Case, New York City, of counsel), for defendants-appellees Rockland County Sewer Dist. No. 1, et al.

Gaines Gwathmey, Asst. U.S. Atty., S.D.N.Y., New York City (John S. Martin, U.S. Atty., S.D.N.Y.; Thomas D. Warren, Asst. U.S. Atty., S.D.N.Y.; Gary M. Rowen, Asst. Regional Counsel of U.S.E.P.A., New York City, of counsel), for defendant-appellee U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Mary Lyndon, Asst. Atty. Gen., for State of N.Y., New York City (Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen. for State of N.Y., New York City, of counsel), for defendant-appellee Flacke.

Vincent J. Aceste, Harrison, N.Y. (Alfred E. Page, Clune, White & Nelson, Harrison, N.Y., of counsel), for defendant-appellee Town of Clarkstown.

Before OAKES, PIERCE and PECK, ^* Circuit Judges.

PIERCE, Circuit Judge:

The Town of Orangetown appeals from a final judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Richard Owen, Judge, 544 F.Supp. 105, dismissing plaintiff's challenge to the approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of construction grants for the design and expansion of the Rockland County Sewer District No. 1 (RCSD) sewage treatment system, and for a portion of the construction costs of said expansion. At the heart of this appeal is the issue of the appropriate scope of judicial review of an administrative agency's decision-making process and the standard against which such decisions are to be measured. ¹

On appeal, Orangetown's principal contentions are: (1) that the EPA acted unlawfully in failing to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before providing funds for the expansion and design of the RCSD waste treatment system, (2) that the agency acted in violation of its regulations in administering the subject federal construction grant program, (3) that the district court erred in determining that operation of the RCSD plant did not constitute a nuisance and, (4) that the court erred in dismissing plaintiff's New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) claim as barred by the statute of limitations. For the reasons stated hereinbelow, we affirm the district court's dismissal of the complaint.

FACTS

The proposed project against which this action is directed involves the expansion of the sewage treatment plant of the Rockland County Sewer District No. 1. The project entails the expansion of the plant's sewage collection system and the installation of modern odor-control equipment. The waste treatment plant presently services the Rockland County Sewer District No. 1 which covers approximately 80 square miles and provides sewage treatment for 160,000 residents in the Towns of Clarkstown and Ramapo and the Villages of Spring Valley and New Square. Sewage from the district is piped into and treated at the plant's main facility in the Town of Orangetown, New York. Although the County's treatment plant is situated in Orangetown, that town's sewage is treated in its own plant, which is located less than one mile from the County plant.

In recent years, it has become apparent that the RCSD plant is inadequate to meet the area's present and future needs. The already overtaxed plant has experienced several equipment breakdowns and has been allegedly associated with foul and noxious odors. After commissioning a number of waste treatment studies of the plant system, the sewer district sought to expand the capacity of the RCSD plant's sewage disposal system and related piping, modernize its equipment, and repair the present plant facilities.

The existing RCSD sewage treatment plant presently has a design capacity to treat 3,800 cubic meters (10 million gallons per day, or "10 mgd"), but present wastewater flows substantially exceed this quantity. A large part of the excessive flow at the plant is due to the infiltration of groundwater and the inflow of stormwater into the interceptor and collection system. ² As part of the project presently being proposed, the RCSD treatment plant will be expanded to 8,500 cu m (25 mgd) to handle existing and future sewage flows from the sewer district as well as the infiltration and inflow from groundwater and stormwater. The proposed sewerage system expansion will enable the RCSD to sewer presently unsewered areas of the RCSD, and relieve the burden on the present RCSD plant as well as on numerous smaller municipally and privately owned sewage treatment plants.

In 1976, pursuant to the EPA construction grant program, 40 C.F.R. Sec. 35.900-35.970 (1982), the Town of Ramapo and the RCSD applied to the EPA for funding to initiate a planning process for the modernization and expansion of the RCSD waste treatment plant system. ³ The requests for funding were made pursuant to a three-step federal assistance program, the purpose of which is to assist municipalities in constructing waste treatment works. Id. Sec. 35.903. Step I Funds pay the partial cost of generating a "Facilities Plan" which outlines the proposed project; Step II Funds pay the partial cost of designing the project; and Step III Funds help defray the costs of actual construction.

In response to the requests for funding, EPA made a grant of Step I Funding to the Town of Ramapo and the RCSD in 1976. During the next four years, a number of waste treatment studies or Sewer System Evaluation Surveys (SSES) were conducted and a nine-volume Facilities Plan was prepared by the RCSD and the Town of Ramapo. During the development of the various drafts of the Facilities Plan, coordination and exchanges of information were made with consulting engineering firms directly through the RCSD or through various federal and state agencies. Other data used in the planning process were obtained from the Rockland County Planning Board, local municipalities, and surveys of the sewer district and sewer system previously sponsored by state and federal agencies. During the same period, the RCSD held public information meetings and a formal public hearing so that pertinent documentation could be presented for review by the public and various environmental groups. ⁴ Based on data derived at the information meetings and public hearing, adjustments to the planning were made. Still further input to the planning process was provided through frequent negotiations between the RCSD, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (State DEC) and the Regional Administrator of the EPA. Due to this interaction of parties, the Facilities Plan was the subject of numerous amendments, and other subsequent modifications were incorporated into the facility's design. The record shows exchanges of correspondence indicating that specific proposals were made to both the State DEC and EPA and were given careful consideration. For example, the initial location of the administration building was changed to another site to overcome environmental concerns about protecting wetlands. Also, a meeting held August 6, 1980, between the agencies and RCSD led to deletion of a rear access road from the Facilities Plan, while a proposal to build prefabricated ventilated buildings over the first stage of rotating biological disks was included in the Facilities Plan to minimize adverse environmental effects.

The Facilities Plan and related documents were submitted to the State DEC for its review and approval by late summer of 1980, and the State DEC, having worked in concert with the EPA and the applicants to conform the project to federal and state agency standards, certified the Facilities Plan to the Grants Administration Branch of the EPA on August 29, 1980.

Upon receipt of the Step II grant applications from the RCSD and Ramapo, the EPA performed an environmental review of the project. On the same date, the EPA issued a public statement which concluded that the agency had determined that "no significant impact will result from the proposed action." ⁵ Consequently, the agency determined not to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before granting construction funds for the project. Instead, the EPA attached to the public notice of "no significant impact," a thirty-four page Environmental Assessment (EA), which described the facilities planning area of the project, set forth the purpose of and need for the project, identified the selected plan and its costs, evaluated the environmental consequences of the various alternatives to expanding the present plant system and listed, inter alia, the projected effects on wetlands, floodplains, vegetation, and sedimentation. The EA also outlined the steps taken to minimize adverse environmental consequences and listed the Special Grant Conditions which would be attached to any federal construction grants in order to protect environmentally sensitive areas from development.

On September 30, 1980, the EPA offered a Step II design grant to the RCSD in the amount of $2,858,627 and to Ramapo in the amount of $505,950. The grants were accepted by both applicants in November, 1980. However, before the RCSD could apply for Step III construction funding, the Town of Orangetown commenced the instant action challenging the EPA's...