ELR Citation: ELR 20300
No(s). 86-4739 (5th Cir. Nov 2, 1987)

The court upholds the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) requirement in a national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit that discharge pipes have submerged outlets extending beyond the intertidal mudflats at Cook Inlet, Alaska. Cook Inlet has extreme tides of up to 30 feet and fast tidal currents of up to six or seven knots. Marathon Oil Company operates two crude oil processing facilities that discharge some or all of the time onto the mudflats between the high and low watermarks. EPA amended Marathon's general NPDES permit to require that discharge pipes extend past the mudflats into the waters of Cook Inlet at all times. The court holds that, despite some obscurity in the record and misunderstanding among the parties, EPA rationally based its permit requirement primarily on computer modelling of the dilution obtained when the waste is discharged into Cook Inlet. Although EPA did not model the precise previous configuration of facilities' waste streams, it did model configurations more favorable to the defendant, and found that Alaska water quality standards were nonetheless violated. EPA considered and rejected the defendant's proposed alternative methodology.

Counsel for Petitioner
William D. Maer
Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe
4100 First Interstate Ctr., 99 Third Ave., Seattle WA 98104-4011
(206) 447-0900

J. Berry St. John
Liskow & Lewis
50th Fl., One Shell Square, New Orleans LA 70139
(504) 581-7979

Counsel for Respondents
George B. Henderson II
Land and Natural Resources Division
Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530
(202) 633-2327

Before WISDOM, GEE, and RANDALL, Circuit Judges.