U.S. v. Denver

• Decision Date: 18 November 1996
• Docket Number: No. 96-1091,96-1091
• Citation: 100 F.3d 1509
• Parties: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Counter-Defendant-Appellee, v. DENVER, CITY AND COUNTY OF; DOROTHY A. NEPA, in her official capacity as Administrator of the Department of Zoning Administration of the City and County of Denver, Defendants-Counter-Claimants-Appellants
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1509

100 F.3d 1509

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Counter-Defendant-Appellee, v. DENVER, CITY AND COUNTY OF; DOROTHY A. NEPA, in her official capacity as Administrator of the Department of Zoning Administration of the City and County of Denver,

Defendants-Counter-Claimants-Appellants.

No. 96-1091

United States Court of Appeals,

TENTH CIRCUIT

November 18, 1996

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO, (D.C. No. 94-D-2004)

T. Shaun Sullivan, Assistant City Attorney (Daniel E. Muse, City Attorney, Robert M. Kelly and Thomas Bigler, Assistant City Attorneys, with him on the brief), Denver, CO, for Defendants-Counter-Claimants-Appellants.

Daniel W. Pinkston, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Washington, D.C. (Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General, Washington, D.C., Henry L. Solano, U.S. Attorney and Linda A. Surbaugh, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Denver, CO, Martin W. Matzen and Elinor Colbourn, Attorneys, U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental and Natural Resources Division Washington, D.C., George Wyeth, Attorney, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., and Wendy I. Silver, Attorney, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Denver, CO, with him on the brief), for Plaintiff-Counter-Defendant-Appellee.

Before EBEL, KELLY and BRISCOE, Circuit Judges.

KELLY, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellant City and County of Denver appeals from a grant of summary judgment in favor of Plaintiff-Appellee United States on the United States' declaratory judgment action. The district court granted summary judgment on the grounds that Denver's zoning ordinance is preempted by the Comprehensive Environmental Responses, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), Pub. L. No. 96-510, 94 Stat. 2767 (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. Section(s) 9601-9675). Our jurisdiction arises under 28 U.S.C. Section(s) 1291. We affirm.

Background

Congress enacted CERCLA to provide a mechanism for the prompt and efficient cleanup of hazardous waste sites. See United States v. Akzo Coatings of Am., 949 F.2d 1409, 1417 (6th Cir. 1991). The Act authorizes the EPA to issue orders requiring potentially responsible parties to clean up hazardous waste sites. 42 U.S.C. Section(s) 9606(a). The EPA also may conduct its own cleanup, and then seek contribution from potentially responsible parties, which includes current and past owners of the site, as well as the owners and transporters of the waste held at the site. 42 U.S.C. Section(s) 9604, 9607(a). Section 9621 of CERCLA establishes the cleanup standards that must be met, including all applicable or relevant and appropriate requirements of federal and state environmental laws.

Waste sites subject to CERCLA include virtually any place where hazardous substances are located. Any site listed on the National Priorities List under CERCLA Section(s) 9605(a)(8)(B), is subject to EPA-funded cleanup activity. These EPA cleanups are financed by the Superfund, an $8.5 billion fund created by EPA taxes and fees. See 26 U.S.C. Section(s) 9507.

The core of the CERCLA cleanup program is the National Contingency Plan, 40 C.F.R. Part 300 (1995), which specifies the roles of the federal and state governments in responding to hazardous waste sites, and establishes the procedures for making cleanup decisions. The Plan provides that once a hazardous waste site is identified, it should be evaluated to determine whether a remedial action is required. This evaluation involves an intensive remedial investigation/feasibility study, which identifies the possible remedial alternatives. On the basis of that study, the EPA proposes the selected remedy, after which there follows a period for public comment. The cleanup plan is then finalized, and the EPA's remedy decision is documented in a record of decision.

The Denver Radium Superfund Site is divided into eleven operable units comprising over forty locations which were contaminated by radioactive waste in the early 1900s. In 1983, the EPA placed the Denver Radium Superfund Site on the National Priorities List of the country's most contaminated sites. This designation prompted a long series of studies, public meetings, formal decisions and environmental cleanups pursuant to CERCLA and the National Contingency Plan. By September 1987, records of decision had been issued for ten of the eleven operable units. Each decision primarily identified excavation, removal and replacement of the contaminated soil as the proper cleanup remedy.

In December 1990, the EPA and Colorado Department of Health (CDH) made available for public comment a draft of the remedial investigation/feasibility study for OU-VIII, the last operable unit to be considered. The site consists of three parcels, the largest of which is owned by the S.W. Shattuck Chemical Company. It is the only operable unit at the Denver Superfund Site for which private, as opposed to government, parties are responsible.

On March 29, 1991, the EPA and CDH issued for public comment a proposed remediation plan for OU-VIII that identified excavation and replacement as the preferred alternative, but specifically encouraged comment on all seven of the available alternatives, noting that the preferred alternative could be modified. On January 28, 1992, the EPA and CDH issued the record of decision for the site indicating that the preferred alternative was now on-site solidification of contaminated soils on the Shattuck parcel. The decision considered the comments submitted by various parties, including Denver, and was accompanied by detailed responses to the comments. Denver strongly supported excavation and replacement, but none of Denver's comments claimed that on-site remediation would violate its zoning ordinances.

Pursuant to CERCLA Section(s) 9606(a), the EPA issued a remedial order effective August 31, 1992, requiring Shattuck to perform the on-site remedy for OU-VIII. Shattuck is subject to civil penalties -- and possibly punitive damages -- for willful violation of or failure to comply with the EPA Order. See 42 U.S.C. Section(s) 9607(c)(3), 9612(c). Shattuck agreed to comply with the order and began to do so. On May 11, 1994, Denver issued a cease and desist order to Shattuck based on asserted violations of Denver zoning ordinances, which prohibit the maintenance of hazardous waste in areas zoned for industrial use. On June 10, 1994, Shattuck filed an appeal of the order with the Denver Board of Adjustment for Zoning Appeals. The Board upheld the cease and desist order on November 15, 1994. The United States was not a party to those proceedings.

After the Board decision, representatives of the United States and Denver met to attempt to resolve the issues. These negotiations failed, and the United States filed the complaint in this case seeking a declaratory judgment that the cease and desist order is void and unenforceable. On February 22, 1996, the district court entered an order granting the United States' motion for summary judgment, denying Denver's cross-motion for summary judgment, and enjoining Denver from enforcing its zoning ordinance against Shattuck. This appeal followed.

Discussion

We review the grant of summary judgment de novo, and apply the same legal standard used by the district court under Rule 56(c). Goldsmith v. Learjet, Inc., 90 F.3d 1490, 1493 (10th Cir. 1996). Summary judgment is appropriate if "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and . . . the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). We construe the factual record and reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Gullickson v. Southwest Airlines Pilots' Ass'n, 87 F.3d 1176, 1183 (10th Cir. 1996).

I. Conflict Preemption

The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, art. VI, Section(s) 2, invalidates state laws that "interfere with, or are contrary to the laws of [C]ongress, made in pursuance of the [C]onstitution." Wisconsin Pub. Intervenor v. Mortier, 501 U.S. 597, 604 (1991) (quoting Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat) 1, 211 (1824)). Federal law preempts state law explicitly if the language of the federal statute reveals an express congressional intent to do so. Barnett Bank of Marion County v. Nelson, 116 S. Ct. 1103, 1107-08 (1996). In the absence of such language, the state's law may still be preempted implicitly, in either of two ways. "Field preemption" occurs where the federal scheme of regulation is so pervasive that Congress must have intended to leave no room for the States to supplement it. Id. at 1108. "Conflict preemption" occurs where it is impossible to comply with both the federal and state laws, or the state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment of Congress's objectives. Id.

This is a case of conflict preemption. Denver concedes that it is impossible for Shattuck to comply with both Denver's zoning ordinance and the EPA's remedial order. This zoning ordinance also stands as an obstacle to the objectives of CERCLA, whose purpose is to effect the expeditious and permanent cleanup of hazardous waste sites, and to allow the EPA the flexibility needed to address site-specific problems. CERCLA Section(s) 9621(b)(1) (expressing a preference for on-site, permanent remedies); H.R. Rep. No. 99-253(I), 99th Cong., 2d Sess., at 58, reprinted in 1986 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2835, 2840 (stating that the EPA should select efficient and permanent cleanups when possible); id. at 2839 (stating that the 1986 amendments to CERCLA were designed in part to leave the EPA sufficient flexibility to address site-specific problems). A zoning ordinance which bars the maintenance of hazardous waste dramatically restricts the range of options available to the EPA, and in this case the ordinance would prevent a permanent on-site remedy. We agree with the district court that Denver's zoning ordinance is in actual conflict with the EPA's remedial order.

...