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Administrative Law Keyed to Cass
Seacoast Anti-Pollution League v. Costle
Citation:
572 F.2d 872 (1978)Facts
The Public Service Company of New Hampshire filed an application with the EPA seeking permission to discharge heated water from its proposed Seabrook nuclear generating station into the Hampton-Seabrook Estuary and the Gulf of Maine. The cooling system would take water from the Gulf, run it through the plant’s condenser, and discharge it back at a temperature thirty-nine degrees Fahrenheit higher than at intake. Because this once-through cooling system did not meet EPA effluent limitation standards, PSCO also sought an exemption under Section 316(a) of the FWPCA. After adjudicatory hearings before an administrative law judge in March and April 1976, the Regional Administrator denied PSCO’s application in November 1976, finding insufficient evidence regarding environmental impacts, particularly concerning backflushing effects. PSCO appealed to the EPA Administrator, who assembled a technical review panel of six in-house scientists. This panel reviewed the record and submitted a report finding that PSCO had met its burden except regarding backflushing. The Administrator then requested additional written information from PSCO, allowed other parties to comment, and offered to hold a hearing only if certain threshold conditions were met. Petitioners requested a hearing but were denied. The Administrator’s final decision, relying on both the technical panel’s report and PSCO’s supplemental submission, reversed the Regional Administrator and granted PSCO’s application.
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