Appendix — City of Highland Park v. Train
Supreme Court brief1976
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! | oe FILED
OCT 22 1975
MICHAEL RODAK, JR., CLERK
APPENDIX TO PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI
TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT.
IN THE
Supreme Court of the Auited States
Ocroser TERM, 1975
No. ‘75 - 610 1
THE CITY OF HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS, EtTc., &T AL.,
| Petitioners,
RUSSELL E. TRAIN, ETc., ET AL.,
Respondents.
Gunthorp-Warren Printing Company, Chicago e Financial 66565
er Se Se -
a
IN THE
Suvuvreme Court of the Gnited States |
OcTOBER TERM, 1975.
No.
THE CITY OF HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS, eEtc., ET AL.,
Petitioners,
vs.
RUSSELL E. TRAIN, ETc., ET AL.,
Respondents.
APPENDIX TO PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI
TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT.
INDEX TO APPENDIX.
Statutes Involved.
PAGE
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Judgment Order of July 24, 1975 .................. A39
Order of July 24, denying Petition for Rehearing ....... A40
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Opinion of the District Court for the Northern District
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Supplemental Opinion of the District Court for the North-
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UNITED STATES Copg, TITLE 5
§ 701. Application; definitions
(a) This chapter applies, according to the provisions
thereof, except to the extent that—
(1) statutes preclude judicial review; or
(2) agency action is committed to agency discretion
by law.
(b) For the purpose of this chapter—
(1) “agency” means each authority of the Government
of the United States, whether or not it is within or subject
to review by another agency, but does not include—
(A) the Congress;
(B) the courts of the United States;
(C) the governments of the territories or posses-
sions of the United States;
(D) the government of the District of Columbia;
(E) agencies composed of representatives of the
parties or of representatives of organizations of the
parties to the disputes determined by them;
(F) courts martial and military commissions;
(G) military authority exercised in the field in time
of war or in occupied territory; or
(H) functions conferred by sections 1738, 1739,
1743, and 1744 of title 12; chapter 2 of title 41;
or sections 1622, 1884, 1891-1902, and former sec-
tion 1641(b) (2), of title 50, appendix; and
(2) “person”, “rule”, “order”, “license”, “sanction”,
“relief”, and “agency action” have the meanings given them
by section 551 of this title.
§ 702. Right of review
A person suffering legal wrong because of agency action,
or adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action within the
meaning of a relevant statute, is entitled to judicial review
thereof.
§ 703. Form and venue of proceeding
The form of proceeding for judicial review is the special statu-
tory review proceeding relevant to the subject matter in a court
specified by statute or, in the absence or inadequacy thereof,
any applicable form of legal action, including actions for declar-
atory judgments or writs of prohibitory or mandatory injunction
or habeas corpus, in a court of competent jurisdiction. Except
to the extent that prior, adequate, and exclusive opportunity for
judicial review is provided by law, agency action is subject to
judicial review in civil or criminal proceedings for judicial
enforcement.
§ 704. Actions reviewable
Agency action made reviewable by statute and final agency
action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court
are subject to judicial review. A preliminary, procedural, or
intermediate agency action or ruling not directly reviewable is
subject to review on the review of the final agency action. Except
as otherwise expressly required by statute, agency action other-
wise final is final for the purposes of this section whether or not
there has been presented or determined an application for a
declaratory order, for any form of reconsideration, or, unless
the agency otherwise requires by rule and provides that the
action meanwhile is inoperative, for an appeal to superior
agency authority.
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§ 705. Relief pending review
When an agency finds that justice so requires, it may postpone
the effective date of action taken by it, pending judicial review.
On such conditions as may be required and to the extent neces-
sary to prevent irreparable injury, the reviewing court, including
the court to which a case may be taken on appeal from or on
application for certiorari or other writ to a reviewing court, may
issue all necessary and appropriate process to postpone the
effective date of an agency action or to preserve status or rights
pending conclusion of the review proceedings.
§ 706. Scope of review
To the extent necessary to decision and when presented, the
reviewing court shall decide all relevant questions of law,
interpret constitutional and statutory provisions, and determine
the meaning or applicability of the terms of an agency action.
The reviewing court shall—
(1) compel agency action unlawfully withheld or un-
reasonably delayed; and
(2) hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings,
and conclusions found to be—
(A) arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion,
or otherwise not in accordance with law;
(B) contrary to constitutional right, power, priv-
ilege, or immunity;
_ (C) in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority,
or limitations, or short of statutory right;
(D) without observance of procedure required by
law;
(E) unsupported by susbtantial evidence in a case
subject to sections 556 and 557 of this title or other-
wise reviewed on the record of an agency hearing
provided by statute; or
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(F) unwarranted by the facts to the extent that
the facts are subject to trial de novo by the reviewing
court.
In making the foregoing determinations, the court shall review
the whole record or those parts of it cited by a party, and due
account shall be taken of the rule of prejudicial error.
UNITED STATES Cope, TITLE 28
§ 1331. Federal question; amount in controversy; costs
(a) The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of all
civil actions wherein the matter in controversy exceeds the sum
or value of $10,000, exclusive of interest and costs, and arises
under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States.
(b) Except when express provision therefor is otherwise
made in a statute of the United States, where the plaintiff is
finally adjudged to be entitled to recover less than the si 1 or
value of $10,000, computed without regard to any setoff or
counterclaim to which the defendant may be adjudged to be
entitled, and exclusive of interests and costs, the district court
may deny costs to the plaintiff and, in addition, may impose
costs on the plaintiff.
§ 1361. Action to compel an officer of the United States to
perform his duty :
The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any
action in the nature of mandamus to compel an officer or em-
ployee of the United States or any agency thereof to perform
a duty owed to the plaintiff.
UNITED STATES CopE, TITLE 42
§ 1857h—2. Citizen suits—Establishment of right to bring suit
(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section,
any person may commence a civil action on his own behalf—
(1) against any person (including (i) the United States,
and (ii) any other governmental instrumentality or agency
AS
to the extent permitted by the Eleventh Amendment to the
Constitution) who is alleged to be in violation of (A)
an emission standard or limitation under this chapter or
(B) an order issued by the Administrator or a State with
respect to such a standard or limitation, or
(2) against the Administrator where there is alleged a
failure of the Administrator to perform any act or duty
under this chapter which is not discretionary with the
The district courts shall have jurisdiction, without regard to the
amount in controversy or the citizenship of the parties, to
enforce such an emission standard or limitation, or such an
order, or to order the Administrator to perform such act or
duty, as the case may be.
Notice
(b) No action may be commenced—
(1) under subsection (a)(1) of this section—
(A) prior to 60 days after the plaintiff has given
notice of the violation (i) to the Administrator, (ii)
to the State in which the violation occurs, and (iii)
to any alleged violator of the standard, limitation, or
order, or
(B) if the Administrator or State has commenced
and is diligently prosecuting a civil action in a court
of the United States or a State to require compliance
with the standard, limitation, or order, but in any
such aciion in a court of the United States any person
may intervene as a matter of right.
(2) under subsection (a)(2) of this section prior to
60 days after the plaintiff has given notice of such action
to the Administrator,
except that such action may be brought immediately after such
notification in the case of an action under this section respecting
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a violation of section 1857c—7(c)(1)(B) of this title or an
order issued by the Administrator pursuant to section 1857c
—8(a) of this title. Notice under this subsection shall be given
in such manner as the Administrator shall prescribe by regu-
lation.
Venue; intervention by Administrator
(c) (1) Any action respecting a violation by a stationary
source of an emission standard or limitation or an order respect-
ing such standard or limitation may be brought only in the
judicial district in which such source is located.
(2) In such action under this section, the Administrator,
if not a party, may intervene as a matter of right.
Award of costs; security
(d) The court, in issuing any final order in any action
brought pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, may award
costs of litigation (including reasonable attorney and expert
witness fees) to any party, whenever the court determines such
award is appropriate. The court may, if a temporary restraining
order or preliminary injunction is sought, require the filing of
a bond or equivalent security in accordance with the Federal
Rules of Civil Procedure.
Non-restriction of other rights ~
(e) Nothing in this section shall restrict any right which any
person (or class of persons) may have under any statute or
common law to seek enforcement of any emission standard or
limitation or to seek any other relief (including relief against
the Administrator or a State agency).
Definition
(f) For purposes of this section, the term “emission stand-
ard or limitation under this chapter” means—
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(1) a schedule or timetable of compliance, emission
limitation, standard of performance or emission standard,
or
(2) a control or prohibition respecting a motor vehicle
fuel or fuel additive,
which is in effect under this chapter (including a requirement
applicable by reasons of sections 1857f of this title) or under
an applicable implementation plan.
§ 1857h—S. Administrative proceedings and judicial review
(a)(1) In connection with any determination under section
1857c—S(f) of this title or section 1857f—1(b)(5) of this
title, or for purposes of obtaining information under section
1857f—1(b)(4) or 1857f—6c(c)(3) of this title, the Ad-
ministrator may issue subpenas for the attendance and testimony
of witnesses and the production of relevant papers, books, and
documents, and he may administer oaths. Except for emission
data, upon a showing satisfactory to the Administrator by such
owner or operator that such papers, books, documents, or in-
formation or particular part thereof, if made public, would
divulge trade secrets or secret processes of such owner or oper-
ator, the Administrator shall consider such record, report, or
information or particular portion thereof confidential in accord-
ance with the purposes of sections 1905 of Title 18, except that
such paper, book, document, or information may be disclosed to
other officers, employees, or authorized representatives of the
United States concerned with carrying out this chapter, to per-
sons carrying out the National Academy of Sciences’ study and
investigation provided for in section 1857f—1(c) of this title,
or when relevant in any proceeding under this chapter. Wit-
nesses summoned shall be paid the same fees and mileage that
are paid witnesses in the courts of the United States. In case
of contumacy or refusal to obey a subpena served upon any
person under this subparagraph, the district court of the United
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States for any district in which such person is found or resides
or transacts business, upon application by the United States and
after notice to such person, shall have jurisdiction to issue an
order requiring such person to appear and give testimony before
the Administrator to appear and produce papers, books, and
documents before the Administraior, or both, and any failure
to obey such order of the court may be punished by such court
as a contempt thereof.
(b)(1) A petition for review of action of the Administrator
in promulgating any national primary or secondary ambient
air quality standard, any emission standard under section 1857c
—7 of this title, any standard of performance under section
1857c—6 of this title, any standard under section 1857f—1
of this title (other than a standard required to be prescribed
under section 1857f—1(b)(1) of this title), any determination
under section 1857f—1(b)(5) of this title, any control or pro-
hibition under section 1857f—6c of this title, or any standard
under section 1857f—9 of this title may be filed only in the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
A petition for review of the Administrator's action in approv-
ing or promulgating any implementation plan under section
1857c—S of this title or section 1857c—6(d) of this title, or
his action under section 1857-—10(c)(2)(A), (B), or (C)
of this title or under regulations thereunder, may be filed only
in the United States Court of Appeals for the appropriate cirouit.
Any such petition shall be filed within 30 days from the date
of such promulgation, approval, or action, or after such date if
such petition is based solely on grounds arising after such 30th
day.
(2) Action of the Administrator with respect to which
review could have been obtained under paragraph (1) shall not
be subject to judicial review in civil or criminal proceedings for
enforcement.
(c) In any judicial proceeding in which review is sought of
a determination under this chapter required to be made on the
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record after notice and opportunity for hearing, if any party
applies to the court for leave to adduce additional evidence,
and shows to the satisfaction of the court that such additional
evidence is material and that there were reasonable grounds
for the failure to adduce such evidence in the proceeding before
the Administrator, the court may order such additional evidence
(and evidence in rebuttal thereof) to be taken before the Ad-
ministrator, in such manner and upon such terms and conditions
as to the court may deem proper. The Administrator may modify
his findings as to the facts, or make new findings, by reason of
the additional evidence so taken and he shall file such modified
or new findings, and his recommendation, if any, for the modi-
fication or setting aside of his original determination, with the
return of such additional evidence.
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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
For the Seventh Circuit
No. 74-1271 ;
THE City OF HIGHLAND PARK, _LINOIS, etc., et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
vs. ;
RUSSELL E. TRAIN, etc., et al.,
Defendants-A ppellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois, Eastern Division — No. 73 C 3027
Bernard M. Decker, Judge.
No. 75-1006
THE City OF HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS, etc., et al.,
Petitioners,
vs.
RussELt E. Train, as Administrator of the United States En-
vironmental Protection Agency, and UNITED STATES EN-
VIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondents.
Petition for Review of an Order of the
Environmental Protection Agency
Argued February 21, 1975 — Decided June 10, 1975
Opinion Modified, July 24, 1975
Before CUMMINGS, SPRECHER and TONE, Circuit Judges.
Tone, Circuit Judge. In the principal case before us in these
consolidated proceedings, No. 74-1271, plaintiffs sue to block
the construction of a shopping center and the extension and
All
widening of the road along which the shopping center is to be
built, relying upon the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, the
National Environmental Protection Act, and the Equal Protec-
tion Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They seek to compel
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to
promulgate “indirect source” and “significant deterioration”
regulations which they hope would preclude the construction
of the shopping center and the road expansion (Counts I and II)
and to enjoin the road expansion until the Department of Trans-
portation has filed an environmental impact statement pursuant
to the National Environmental Protection Act (Count III).
Plaintiffs also allege that the Village of Northbrook has denied
them equal protection by the adoption of a zoning ordinance
which permits the construction of the shopping center (Count
IV).
The District Court dismissed the claims under the Clean Air
Amendments for failure to comply with the 60-day notice re-
quirement of section 304, 42 U.S.C. § 1857h-2, for failure to
state a claim on which relief can be granted, and on the ground
that some of the relief requested was already the subject of
orders issued by other federal courts. Finding it undisputed that
there was no federal involvement in the road expansion proj-
ect, the court granted summary judgment on the claim that an
environmental impact statement should have been filed. The
equal protection claim was also held to be without merit. The
court entered an order dismissing the action, City of Highland
Park v. Train, 374 F.Supp. 758 (N.D. Ill. 1974), from which
plaintiffs appeal and which we affirm.
Plaintiffs are two municipalities adjacent to the site of the
proposed shopping center, a non-profit corporation dedicated to
protecting the environment in the area, and various individuals
who reside near the site. The defendants are the Administrator
of the Environmental Protection Agency, the agency itself, the
Secretary of the Department of Transportation, the department
itself, the Department of Highways of Cook County, Illinois,
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the developers of the shopping center, proposed tenants of the
shopping center, the Village of Northbrook, in which the shop-
ping center will be located, and the trustees of the village.
The right of way of Lake-Cook Road extends from Lake
Michigan along the entire boundary between Lake and Cook
Counties to the western end of the boundary and continues on
west to the Fox River. Between Milwaukee Avenue and Rand
Road, the road is not completed. Where it is completed, it is,
for the most part, two lanes wide. In 1967 the Cook County
Highway Department initiated plans to expand the completed
portions of the road to four lanes and to construct a four-lane
extension on the right-of-way where no actual roadway presently
exists.
In January, 1973, certain of the defendants announced a
plan for the construction of a shopping center on the south side
of Lake-Cook Road between Skokie Highway and Waukegan
Road. The shopping center, according to the complaint, will
occupy one million square feet, have a parking lot accommodat-
ing 5,000 cars, and generate 28,400 vehicle trips per day. Ninety
percent or more of this traffic will be carried by Lake-Cook
Road, the only through-street which provides access to the shop-
ping center. Plaintiffs allege that this traffic “will overwhelm
even the proposed four lane expanded roadway,” and cause
“intolerable” congestion at the intersections of Lake-Cook Road
and Skokie Highway and Waukegan Road. As a result, resi-
dents of the area will be subjected to substantial “noise and dis-
comfort in the use of their homes and in the use of the streets
in their community” and will be exposed to increases in the
concentration of carbon monoxide in the ambient air by more
than 66 percent over existing levels.
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The Clean Air Amendments
and Their Implementation
To explain plaintiffs’ claims under the Clean Air Amend-
ments of 1970, it is necessary to begin by summarizing per-
tinent parts of that legislation and its implementation by actions
of the Administrator and the states and by certain court deci-
sions. The background and a more complete history of the
amendments and their implementation to date appear in Mr.
Justice Rehnquist’s opinion for the Supreme Court in Train v.
Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 43 U.S.L.W. 4467
(U.S. April 16, 1975).
When the states did not act to fulfill their “primary respon-
sibility” for prevention of air pollution under earlier federal
clean air legislation, “Congress reacted by taking a stick to the
states in the form of the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, Pub.
L. 91-604, 84 Stat. 1676, enacted on December 31 of that
year.” Train v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., supra,
43 U.S.L.W. at 4468. The 1970 Amendments established a
program to control air pollution to be carried out by the fed-
eral government and the states. The parts of the Amendments
pertinent here may be summarized as follows:
The Administrator was required, before specified dates, to
publish a list of air pollutants and issue “air quality criteria”
containing information about each listed pollutant and its effects
on the air. (Section 108, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—3.) He was also
required to establish national “ambient air quality standards”
for each air pollutant for which air quality criteria were issued.
(Section 109, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—4.) The states have primary
authority to establish “implementation plans” to achieve these
standards, but these plans are subject to review by the Admin-
istrator. (Section 110, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S.)
Two sets of standards were to be prescribed by the Adminis-
trator, “primary standards,” the “attainment and maintenance of
which, in the judgment of the Administrator, based on [air
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quality] criteria and allowing an adequate margin of safety, are
requisite to protect the public health;” and “secondary stand-
ards,” which “shall specify a level of air quality the attainment
and maintenance of which, in the judgment of the Administrator,
based on such criteria, is requisite to protect the public welfare
from any known or anticipated adverse effects associated with
the presence of such air pollutant in the ambient air.” (Section
109(b), 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—4(b).) The Administrator pre-
scribed these standards within the time allowed him by the Act.
Within nine months after the Administrator’s promulgation
of the national standards, each state was to submit to him a
plan providing for the “implementation, maintenance, and
enforcement” of the standards. (Section 110(a)(1), 42 U.S.C.
§ 1857c—5(a)(1).) Each state plan was required to provide
for the attainment of the national primary standards “as ex-
peditiously as practicable” and not later than three years after
the date the Administrator approved the plan. (Section 110(a)
(2)(A) (i), 42 U.S.C. §1857c—5(a)(2)(A)(i).) The na-
tional secondary standards were to be met within a “reasonable
time” to be specified in the plan. (Section 110(a) (2) (A) (ii),
42 U.S.C. § 1857c—5(a)(2)(A)(ii).) Each state plan was
to include “emission limitations, schedules, and timetables for
compliance with such limitations, and such other measures as
may be necessary to insure attainment and maintenance of
such primary or secondary standard, including, but not limited
to, land-use and transportation controls.” Section 110(a) (2)
(B), 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—5(a)(2)(B).) Other prerequisites
to approval by the Administrator are set forth in the Act. (Sec-
tion 110(a)(2)(C) through (H), 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S5(a)
(2)(C) through (H).)
Within four months after the date a state plan was required
to be submitted, the Administrator was required to review the
plan to determine whether it satisfied the statutory requirements
and to approve or disapprove the plan or each portion thereof.
(Section 110(a), 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S5(a).) If the Admin-
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istrator determined that a state’s plan or any portion thereof
did not satisfy the statutory requirements, he was to disapprove
the plan, or the offending portion thereof, and, within six
months after the date the plan was required to be submitted,
promulgate his own implementation plan or portion thereof for
that state. (Section 110(c) (1), 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—5(c) (1).)
Significant Deterioration Regulations
During the period he was reviewing state plans, the Admin-
istrator questioned his authority to require those plans to
protect against “significant deterioration” of air quality in
areas in which the air was cleaner than required by the national
standards, when that significant deterioration would not result
in pollution violative of the national standards. He took the
position that he would not demand such provisions in state
plans. See Sierra Club v. Ruckelshaus, 344 F.Supp. 258, 254
(D.D.C. 1972), affd per curiam, 4 E.R.C. 1815 (D.C. Cir.
1972), affd by an equally divided Court sub nom. Fri v.
Sierra Club, 412 U.S. 541 (1973). In the Sierra Club case
the court held, on motion for preliminary injunction, that the
Administrator had a non-discretionary duty to protect the air
quality from significant deterioration and issued a preliminary
injunction prohibiting him from approving state plans “which
allow pollution levels of clean air to rise to the secondary
standard level of pollution.” 344 F.Supp. at 256.’ The court
ordered the Administrator to promulgate proposed significant
deterioration regulations within six months as to any state plan
which permitted or failed to take measures sufficient to prevent
significant deterioration. 2 E.L.R. 20262, 20263.
As a result of that decision the Administrator again reviewed
all state implementation plans and disapproved them to the
extent that they failed to prevent significant deterioration of air
quality. (40 C.F.R. § 52.21 (1974), 37 Fed. Reg. 23,836
$. ee ee eee Inc. Vv. Train,
489 F.2d 390, 408 (Sth Cir. 1974), rev’d on other
grounds,
supra, 43 US.LW. 4467; Exxon Corp. v. City of New York,
372 F.Supp. 335, 339 (SDN. Y. 1974).
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(Nov. 9, 1972).) One of the plans affected was that of Illinois,
which had been submitted to the Administrator on January
31, 1972, and given partial approval on May 26, 1972. (40
C.F.R. § 52.722 (1974), 37 Fed. Reg. 10,842 (May 31,
1972).) In response to his duty under the court’s order in the
Sierra Club case the Administrator proposed (38 Fed. Reg.
18,986 (July 16, 1973)) and reproposed (39 Fed. Reg. 31,000
(Aug. 27, 1974)) rules on the prevention of significant air
quality deterioration. Eventually he promulgated regulations for
two of the six air pollutants for which he had earlier promul-
gated national ambient air quality standards under his statutory
duty. (39 Fed. Reg. 42,510 (Dec. 5, 1974).) These regula-
tions are intended to prevent significant deterioration in the
quality of air for two pollutants, particulate matter and sulfur
dioxide, by limiting increases in the concentrations of those
pollutants in areas where the present level of pollution is less
than required by the national ambient air quality standards.
This is to be accomplished by dividing those areas in which the
level of pollution does not presently exceed the national ambient
air quality standards into three classes in which increases in
concentration of the two pollutants are limited by different
amounts. The Administrator originally classified all areas, but
the states, after a public hearing and subject to other require-
ments, may submit to the Administrator proposals for reclassi-
fication of areas. No final regulations have been promulgated
for the other four pollutants as of yet. The Administrator,
2. The six pollutants originally identified were sulfur
dioride,
particulate matter, carbon monoxide, oxidants,
carbons, and nitrogen dioxide. (40 C_F.R. §§ 50.4—50.11 tis34))
The original proposed rules referred to in the text broadened “nitro-
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Indirect Source Regulations
When the Administrator gave partial approval to the
Illinois implementation plan on May 26, 1972, he also granted
to Illinois, as he did to a number of other states, extensions until
February 15, 1973, to submit the transportation portion of its
implementation plan. Several other states were given until mid-
1977 to attain the national primary standards. (37 Fed. Reg.
10,842 (May 31, 1972).) The Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia, on a petition for review, held that this
extension was not authorized by the Act, and also found that
the record did not show whether the Administrator had con-
ducted a state-by-state determination on the efficacy of the
state plans to provide for the maintenance of the primary and
secondary standards beyond May 31, 1975. National Resources
Defense Council, Inc. v. EPA, 475 F.2d 968, 970, 971-972
(D.C. Cir. 1973). The court established a new time schedule
under which the Administrator was to review the maintenance
provisions of the state plans and disapprove those which he
of the primary standard. (/d. at 972.) In this re-examination,
the Administrator found that none of the state plans, including
that of Illinois, contained adequate provisions for insuring the
maintenance of national standards, but granted the states an-
other opportunity to develop adequate programs. (40 C.F.R.
§ 52.22(a) (1974), 38 Fed. Reg. 6280 (March 8, 1973).)
The Administrator, pursuant to the order of the Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia in Natural Resources
Defense Council, Inc. v. EPA, then promulgated regulations
to insure the maintenance of national standards by requiring
state implementation plans to contain procedures for review of
any new stationary source or modification that might “interfere
with attainment or maintenance of a standard either directly
because of emissions from it, or indirectly, because of emissions
resulting from mobile source activities associated with it.” (40
C.F.R. § 51.18 (1974), 38 Fed. Reg. 15,834, 15,836 (June
18, 1973).) He suggested guidelines to assist the states in com-
Al8
plying with the requirements of section 51.18. (See Appendix
O to 40 C.F.R. § 51.18.)
The Administrator was also required by National Resources
Defense Council, Inc. v. EPA, to promulgate indirect sou ce
review regulations if states either failed to submit such regula-
tions on their own or submitted inadequate regulations. (475
F.2d at 971.) In response to that requirement the Administrator
proposed regulations (38 Fed. Reg. 29,893 (Oct. 30, 1973)),
and, after public hearings in 43 states, promulgated them. (40
C.F.R. § 52.22 (1974), 39 Fed. Reg. 7270 (Feb. 25, 1974).)
He also determined that since the plans of most states, including
Illinois, contained inadequate provisions for review of indirect
sources as required by section 51.18, the provisions of section
52.22(b) would be incorporated by reference and made a part
of each of those plans. (See, e.g., 40 C.F.R. § 52.736 (1974).)
An indirect source is defined by the regulation as “a facility,
building, structure, or installation which attracts or may attract
mobile source activities that results in emissions or a pollutant
for which there is a national standard,” for example a “[pJarking
facility.” (40 C.F.R. § 52.22(b)(i) (1974).) The regulation
applies to any indirect source on which construction or modi-
fication is to commence after December 31, 1974. The Admin-
istrator later amended the indirect source regulations in re-
spects not material here. (39 Fed. Reg. 25,292 (July 9,
1974).) .
The Motion to Dismiss the Appeal
A motion by the defendants who are the developers of the
shopping center to dismiss the appeal in No. 74-1271 against
them and a prospective tenant was taken under advisement
with the case. These defendants argue that a 1974 amendment
to the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 1857c-5(c)(2)(C), (D))
and the promulgation of indirect source regulations moot Count
I, the only part of the case concerning them, and that no case
or controversy between them and the plaintiffs is raised in the
plaintiffs’ briefs because of failure to comply with Rule 28 (a)
Al9
(5), Fed. R. App. P., which requires a short statement of the
relief sought. The mootness ground is without merit, because
plaintiffs seek in Count I not only promulgation of indirect
source regulations, but also an injunction against construction
of the shopping center until proper regulations have been
promulgated. Since the developer defendants and the tenant
defendants were necessary parties in a claim seeking such an
injunction, the case is not moot as to them. The failure to state
the relief sought against these defendants is not a basis for
dismissal of the appeal as to them in the circumstances of this
case. We therefore deny the motion to dismiss and turn to the
merits of the appeal.
Counts I and II: The Regulations
In Count I of their complaint plaintiffs allege that the Admin-
istrator has been in violation of the provisions of the Act
requiring him to issue two kinds of regulations: (a) significant
deterioration regulations, preventing the significant deteriora-
tion of air quality in areas with air cleaner than national
standards (as stated above, such regulations as to two of the
six pollutants in question have now been promulgated); and
(b) indirect source regulations, preventing violations of the
national air quality standards by indirect sources (as stated
above, these regulations have now been promulgated). They
seek an order requiring him to promulgate those regulations and
to halt further construction of the shopping center until its
plans have been reviewed by the Administrator under both
sets of regulations he is required to promulgate. In Count II the
plaintiffs reallege that the Administrator has been in violation of
his statutory duty to promulgate significant deterioration and in-
direct source regulations. In this count, however, they seek to
halt construction of the Lake-Cook Road expansion and im-
provement project until its plans have been reviewed by the
Administrator under both sets of regulations. To facilitate un-
derstanding of our analysis, we will divide our discussion of
plaintiffs’ claims by considering separately plaintiffs’ rights to
A20
obtain promulgation of the two sets of regulations rather than
by considering separately Counts I and II of their complaint.
Review of the Indirect Source Regulations
The Administrator having promulgated indirect source regu-
lations after the complaint was filed, plaintiffs’ grievance now is
that those regulations exempt indirect sources on which con-
struction was commenced before January 1, 1975, as it was on
the shopping center involved in this case. ~
Section 307(b)(1) of the Amendments, 42 U.S.C. § 1857h-
5(b)(1), provides in pertinent part:
“A petition for review of the Administrator’s action in. . .
promulgating any implementation plan under section
1857c—5 of this title [section 110 of the Amendments]
. . . may be filed only in the United States Court of
Appeals for the appropriate circuit.”
The indirect source regulations are subject to this section.
Entitled “Review of Indirect Sources” (39 Fed. Reg. 7270-7285
(Feb. 25, 1974)), they purport to be promulgated pursuant to
section 110, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S. It is so stated in the Ad-
ministrator’s comments in the first part of the regulations.
Furthermore, the regulations contain the subtitle, “Approval and
Promulgation of Implementation Plans,” which is the statutory
language used in section 307. The regulations set out the na-
tional standards for regulation of indirect sources, disapprove
various parts of state implementation plans, and incorporate the
federal standards into those plans. For example, Subpart O
deals with Dlinois and provides:
“Subpart O—lIllinois
“25. Subpart O is amended by adding § 52.736 as
follows:
“§ 52.736 Review of new sources and modifications.
“(a) The requirements of § 51.18 of this chapter are
not met because the State failed to submit a plan for
review of new or modified indirect sources.
A21
“(b) Regulation for review of new or modified indirect
sources. The provisions of § 52.22(b) of this chapter are
appli :
39 Fed. Reg. at 7281.
Since the regulations incorporate the federal standards into the
state plans, the Administrator is in effect promulgating imple-
mentation plans where state plans are deficient, in accordance
with section 110(c) (42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S5), which is to be
reviewed only under section 307(b)(1) (42 U.S.C. § 1957h—
5(b)(1)).
Other courts of appeals have held under analogous circum-
stances that a petition for review under section 307(b)(1) is
the exclusive method of review. In Getty Oil Co. v. Ruckels-
haus, 467 F.2d 349, 355-356 (3d Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 409
U.S. 1125 (1973), the court refused to permit, in an action
filed in the district court, what amounted to an attack on the
compliance date in regulation in the Delaware plan limiting the
amount of sulfur content in burning fuel, holding that the sole
remedy was a petition for review to the court of appeals under
section 307(b)(1). Also supporting the rule that a petition
under that section is the sole remedy for reviewing the promul-
gation or implementation of clean air plans and regulations are
Plan for Arcadia, Inc. v. Anita Associates, 501 F.2d 390, 392
(9th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, _.... US. _.., 95 S.Ct. 517
(1974); and Anaconda Co. v. Ruckelshaus, 482 F.2d 1301,
1304 (10th Cir. 1973). One district court decision is squarely
in point, Pinkney v. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency,
375 F.Supp. 305, 309 (N.D. Ohio 1974), in which the alter-
native ground for dismissal of a challenge to the 180-day delay
in the effective date of the indirect source regulations was that
the exclusive remedy was a petition for review under section
307(b) (1). Similarly, in Delaware Citizens for Clean Air, Inc.
v. Stauffer Chemical Co., 367 F.Supp. 1040, 1046 (D. Del.
1973), the court refused, on the same ground, to entertain an
action to challenge a state-granted variance from compliance
A22
with a sulfur dioxide emission regulation, which the Administra-
tor had treated as a deferral of compliance amounting to a
revision of the state implementation plan and approved as such.
See West Penn Power Co. v. Train, 378 F.Supp. 941, 944-945
(W.D. Pa. 1974); cf. Luneburg and Roselle, Judicial Review
Under the Clean Air Ame xdments of 1970, 15 B.C. Ind. &
Com. L. Rev. 667, 691 n. 145 (1974).
Plaintiffs attempt to characterize the regulations’ exemption
of any facility on which construction was started before January
1, 1975 as a failure to promulgate regulations with respect to
such facilities. We think, however, that a provision defining the
scope of regulations and their effective date is as much a part
of the regulations as the substantive parts.
The explanations contained in the regulations for the exemp-
tion clause are “recent firm congressional guidelines contained
in amendments to the Clean Air Act,” compelling administrative
reasons, and the need to minimize disruptive effects on industry.
(39 Fed. Reg. at 7272-7273.) A review of the sufficiency of
these reasons requires an examination of the administrative
record, which is not before us now but would be if this were a
petition for review.
The exemption provision is an integral part of the regulations
and, like any other part, must be reviewed in a petition for
review. It cannot be reviewed by an action filed in the district
court.
Plaintiffs have in fact filed a separate petition for review of the
indirect source regulations in this court (No. 74-1231), and
on the EPA’s motion to the Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia (No. 74-1595 in that court). Their contentions
concerning the validity of the exemption provision will presum-
ably be determined in that litigation.
A23
The Failure to Promulgate Significant Deterioration Regulations
for Automobile-Related Pollutants
sulfur dioxide, having been promulgated after the complaint .
was filed (see note 2, supra), plaintiffs now seek to require
the Administrator to promulgate regulations for carbon mon-
oxide and the other automobile-related pollutants for which he
As the District Court pointed out, the Administrator has
already been ordered in Sierra Club v. Ruckelshaus, supra, to
promulgate significant deterioration regulations. Counsel for the
government, in their brief in this court, represented that the
Administrator had complied with this order, and “[t)herefore,
since the significant deterioration regulations have already been
published, the issue of any prior failure to promulgate them
is rendered moot.” Because, as is apparent from the regulations
and the Administrator's introductory statement accompanying
them (39 Fed. Reg. 42,510 (Dec. 5, 1974)), and as counsel
for the government acknowledged during oral argument, the
regulations that have been promulgated relate to only two of
the six identified pollutants, the case is not moot as to this
point. Whether there is a need for a second order against the
Administrator to do that which he has already been ordered
to do in the Sierra Club case is a question we need not reach,
because we find that this claim is not maintainable by plaintiffs
at this time.
Section 304(a) of the Amendments, 42 U.S.C. § 1857h—
2ta), gave te petean gent & Seem
A24
Subsection (b), 42 U.S.C. § 1857h—2(b), imposes the follow-
ing limitation upon this right to sue:
“No action may be commenced—
“(2) under subsection (a)(2) of this section prior to
60 days after the plaintiff has given notice of such action
to the Administrator, ... .”*
Plaintiffs failed to give the Administrator sixty days notice
prior to commencing suit, which the District Court held was
fatal to its jurisdiction under section 304. The court reasoned
that the purpose of the sixty-day notice requirement was to give
the Administrator time to assess and respond to difficult, multi-
count lawsuits, to deploy attorneys from Washington, if neces-
sary, and to arrange for the on-going process of regulatory
development and other substantive EPA concerns despite the
interruption caused by a pending lawsuit. The statute’s sixty-day
notice requirement would be nullified, said the court, if plaintiffs
were required to do nothing more than comply with Fed. R. Civ.
P. 12(a), which grants the United States, or an officer or em-
ployee thereof, sixty days in which to answer a complaint in
any civil suit. City of Highland Park v. Train, supra, 374
F.Supp. at 766-767. In accord with the District Court's i
are Pinkney v. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, supra,
375 F.Supp. at 308, and West Penn Power Co. v. Train, supra,
378 F.Supp. at 944. Cf. Metropolitan Washington Coalition
for Clean Air Vv. District of Columbia, 373 F Supp. 1089, 1092
(D.D.C. 1974).* Contra, Riverside v. Ruckelshaus, 4 E.R.C.
1728 (C.D. Cal 1972).*
F
- : Co
i in Metropolitan Washington Coalition, although they
rd SpA. tm bd. their first
complaint, canna ene eiae same more
than sixty days after service of the first. This, as the court
held, in substance afforded the Administrator the sixty-day notice
i
|
1
A25
The legislative history of section 304 shows Congress’s deter-
mination that citizen participation in the enforcement of stand-
ards and regulations under the Clean Air Act of 1970 be estab-
lished. It also shows, however, that Congvess intended to provide
for citizens’ suits in a manner that would be least likely to clog
already burdened federal courts and most likely to trigger gov-
ernmental action which would alleviate any need for judicial
relief. It was in response to these concerns that the statutory
notice provisions were included in section 304. Congress's
intention would be frustrated if the statutory mandate of section
304(b) were ignored."
The language chosen by Congress makes it clear that the
Administrator is to be given notice in addition to that required
by Rule 12(a), Fed. R. Civ. P., which allows him sixty days
the ,
6. See S. Rep. No. 1196, 9ist 2d Sess., 36-39 (1970),
at 116 Rec. 32926-27 (1970); 116 Cong. Rec.
33102-03 (1970); ~~ ty 91-178, 9ist Cong., 2d Sess.,
U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. $374, 5388 (1970).
7. See Steinberg, Is the Citizen Suit a for
in An
A26
Alternatively, plaintiffs argue that other remedies are avail-
able. The first of these is statutory mandamus, 28 U.S.C.
§ 1361, which provides that “district courts shall have original
jurisdiction of any action in the nature of a mandamus to
compel an officer or employee of the United States or any agency
thereof to perform a duty owed to the plaintiff.”
Among the courts and legal scholars there have been
repeated efforts to ascertain the precise scope and limitations of
section 1361. For purposes of the present case, however, we
need not be concerned with defining the jurisdictional reach
of that section. However broad its scope, mandamus cannot be
invoked to require the District Court to order the Administrator
to promulgate significant deterioration regulations.
The traditional principles generally recognized as controlling
the issuance of a writ of mandamus were concisely stated by the
court in Lovallo v. Froehlke, 468 F.2d 340, 343 (2d Cir.
1972), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 918 (1973), as follows:
“(1) a clear right in the plaintiff to the relief sought;
(2) a plainly defined and peremptory duty on the part of
the defendant to do the act in question; and (3) no other
adequate remedy available.”
8. Though it is undisputed that Congress intended 28 U.S.C.
§ 1361 to extend mandamus jurisdiction, formerly exercised only
by the District Court for the District of Columbia, to district courts
elsewhere, and thereby authorize suits against officials who fail. to
perform ministerial acts, there is some doubt concerning whether
the purview of the common law writ of mandamus was broadened
by the inclusion of the words “in the nature of” before the word
“mandamus” in section 1361, or whether Congress meant only to
make the writ available as it was at common law. Compare Burnett
v. Tolson, 474 F.2d 877, 880 (4th Cir. 1973), State Highway Com-
mission of Missouri v. Volpe, 479 F.2d 1099, 1104-1105 n. 6
(8th Cir. 1973), and Peoples v. United States Dep’t of Agriculture,
427 F.2d 561, 565 (D.C. Cir. 1970) with K. Davis, Administrative
Law Treatise § 23.09 (Supp. 1970), and Byse & Fiocca, Section
1361 on the Mandamus and Venue Act of 1962 and “Nonstatutory”
Judicial Review of Federal Administrative Action, 81 Harv. L. Rev.
308, 318-320 (1967). For cases adopting the traditional and more
prevalent view of section 1361 see Carter v. Seamans, 411 F.2d
767, 773 n. 11 (Sth Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 941 (1970).
A27
See also United States ex rel. Girard Trust Co. v. Helvering,
301 U.S. 540, 543-544 (1937).
There is, as we have have seen, another remedy available,
that provided in section 304(a)(2) of the Clean Air Amend-
ments of 1970, which affords any person a direct remedy to
compel the Administrator to perform a non-discretionary duty.
Plaintiffs have not shown that the necessity of complying with
the notice provision rendered that remedy inadequate in
this case.
It is, accordingly, unnecessary for us to reach the question
of whether there exists that “plainly defined” duty (Lovallo v.
Froehlke, supra, 468 F.2d at 343), the performance of which
is positively commanded and so plainly prescribed as to be free
from doubt (United States v. Walker, 409 F.2d 477, 481
(9th Cir. 1969) ), that is necessary to warrant the issuance of a
writ of mandamus. We do note that the matter was doubtful
enough to cause the Administrator, whose expertise in inter-
preting the statute is entitled to weight, to conclude that the
duty did not exist and to cause the Supreme Court in the
Sierra Club case to divide equally on the question of whether
he was right. But cf. Roberts v. United States, 176 U.S. 221,
231 (1899).
Plaintiffs also argue that the District Court had jurisdiction
to grant the relief requested against the Administrator under
28 U.S.C. § 1331, the general federal question statute, and the
revised Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 702-705.
Until the mandamus statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1361, was adopted
in 1962, the federal district courts did not have mandamus
jurisdiction, Covington & Cincinnati Bridge Co. v. Hager, 203
U.S. 109 (1906), except in the District of Columbia, Fagan v.
Schroeder, 284 F.2d 666, 668 (7th Cir. 1960), where it
existed through historical accident. S. Rep. No. 1992, 87th
Cong., 2d Sess. (1962), reprinted in 1962 U.S. Code Cong.
A28
& Admin. News 2784, et seq. Section 1361 was adopted to
remedy this deficiency and give mandamus jurisdiction to
district courts outside the District of Columbia. (/d.) In light of
this history, it might be questioned whether relief in the nature
of mandamus should be granted in an action in which
subject matter jurisdiction is based on section 1331.* Assuming,
however, that the equivalent of mandamus is available through
the court’s equity powers, the existence of another adequate
remedy would still preclude relief. This is not the kind of case
in which it would be appropriate for federal courts to “adjust
their remedies so as to grant the necessary relief’ for the
invasion of federally protected rights. Cf. Bell v. Hood, 327
U.S. 678, 684 (1946). There is no need for a new remedy,
because, as we have said, an adequate statutory remedy for
protecting rights of the kind asserted by plaintiffs is provided
by the very statute that creates the rights.
The revised Administrative Procedure Act, insofar as per-
tinent here, defines agency action which is subject to judicial
review under that act as “Agency action made reviewable by
statute and final agency action for which there is no other
adequate remedy in a court... .” 5 U.S.C. § 704. Here, as we
have held, there is the “other adequate remedy in a court,”
provided by section 304 of the Clean Air Amendments of
1970, and, while that statute makes the Administrator’s failure
to promulgate regulations reviewable, it does so subject to a
condition which has not been met here, compliance with the
notice requirement. The agency action here is “made reviewable
by statute” only if the condition is met.
9. The Supreme Court’s view once was that a mandatory injunc-
tion could not be used to achieve the same results as mandamus,
e.g., Smith v. Bourbon County, 127 U.S. 105 (1888), but later
decisions tend to suggest otherwise, Virginia Ry. v. System Feder-
ation, 300 U.S. 515, 551 (1937), cf. Panama Canal Co. v. Grace
Line, Inc., 356 U.S. 309 318 (1958), and a number of lower
peta yo er Be B, injunctions to perform the function
of mandamus. See H. Hart and H. Wechsler, The Federal Courts
and the Federal System, 1384-1385 & n. 6 (2d ed. 1973).
A29
In Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Train, 510
F.2d 692, 698-703 (D.C. Cir. 1975), the majority held that
under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the pertinent
provisions of which are substantially the same as those of the
Clean Air Act, judicial review could be obtained under the
Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 704 and, apparently,
under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 also, and refers to the Clean Air Act and
its legislative history as a basis for its holding. The majority’s
opinion does not contain a discussion of the meaning of the
phrase “made reviewable by statute” in 5 U.S.C. § 704, but
bases its holding on the saving provision of the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1365(e), which is sub-
stantially the same as the saving provision in section 304 of
the Clean Air Amendments of 1979, 42 U.S.C. § 1857h-2(e),
and the statements in the legislative history that other remedies
were not impaired by the act. The opinion does not give any
reasons for the court’s apparent holding that jurisdiction was
also conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Judge Robb’s dissent
argues that the 60-day notice requirement should control. (510
F.2d at 730-731.) With deference, we believe that the saving
provision, expressing the general intention of Congress not to
disturb existing rights to seek relief, does not have the affirma-
tive effect of removing conditions which existing law imposes
upon the exercise of those rights. We conclude, for the reasons
stated above, that the conditions imposed by existing law upon
the right to seek relief under either 28 U.S.C. § 1331 or 5
U.S.C. § 704 have not been met. We are not holding that if the
remedy provided by the statute were inadequate in the circum-
stances of a partcular case, other remedies would be unavail-
able.*®
10. The portion of this — dealing with the availability of
remedies other than the right of action provided by section 304 to
review the Administrator’s failure to signfiicant deteriora-
tion regulations has been all the judges of this
court'te regula sodive service, la. view of { possible inconsistency
between our holding and that of the Court of Appeals for the District
A30
The final additional basis for jurisdiction alleged in the com-
plaint, but not urged here, is the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28
U.S.C. §§ 2201, 2202. While the availability of another remedy
does not preclude declaratory relief, a court may properly
decline to assume jurisdiction in a declaratory action when the
other remedy would be more effective or appropriate (6A J.
Moore, Federal Practice 4 57.08{3], p. 57-43 (2d ed. 1974)),
as we find to be the case here.
Dispositions as to Counts I and Il
Since neither judicial review of the indirect source regula-
tions nor mandatory relief to compel the promulgation of
significant deterioration regulations for pollutants related to
automobiles is available in the proceedings before us, there is
no basis in the allegations of Counts I and II for plaintiffs’
demand for an injunction against further construction on the
highway expansion and the shopping center until their claims
concerning these regulations are finally resolved. We cannot
find at this stage a sufficient likelihood that regulations catitling
plaintiffs to such injunctive relief will ultimately be promulgated
to justify an award of injunctive relief. We therefore affirm the
dismissal of Counts I and II.
Count Ill: Absence of an Environmental Impact Statement_
Plaintiffs allege in Count III that portions of the expansion of
Lake-Cock Road are to be constructed with federal funds, and
that the United States Department of Transportation was there-
fore required by the National Environmental Policy Act of
1969 (“NEPA,” 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321, ef seq.) to prepare an
environmental impact statement concerning the expansion,
which has not been prepared. They seek an order requiring the
preparation of such a statement and an injunction prohibiting
of Columbia Circuit. No member of the court voted to rehear the
case in banc.
A31
the construction of the improvements on the road by Cook
County Department of Highways until the statement is prepared.
The motions to dismiss by the defendants under this count were
supported and opposed by affidavits and documents, and there-
fore were treated by the District Court, under the authority of
Rule 12(c), Fed. R. Civ. P., as motions for summary judgment.
The court granted the motions.
Plaintiffs now question the propriety of deciding the issues
under Count III by a summary judgment. They appear not
to have raised this question when they submitted matter outside
the pleadings in opposition to the motions, and did not suggest
in their papers in opposition in the District Court the existence
of any other evidence bearing on the issues. They had ample
Opportunity to present all material pertinent to the motion.
The court properly determined that there was no genuine issue
as to any material fact.
NEPA requires each federal agency, before taking any
“major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of
the human environment,” to prepare a “detailed statement”
analyzing, among other things, “the environmental impact of
the proposed action.” (42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C).) “Actions”
include projects supported in whole or in part by federal
funding. (40 C.F.R. § 1500.5(a)(2) (1974).) Plaintiffs con-
tend that federal funding has been requested for a 2.47 mile
segment of the Lake-Cook Road, and that therefore the require-
ments of NEPA are applicable to the entire road expansion
project.
The documentary evidence submitted below indicates that
that the 2.47 mile segment of the road has received
“federal-aid secondary system” designation. Designation, how-
ever, is merely the first step in the procedure for obtaining
federal funds for highway improvement. The Federal-Aid
Highway Acts indicate that before federal funding is obtained
the project must be programmed by a state agency for federal
A32
funding and then approved by both the state highway depart-
ment and federal authorities. (23 U.S.C. §§ 103(c), (f), 105,
and 106.) It is undisputed that this designation was made long
before the enactment of NEPA, and there is accordingly no
basis for a contention that the road improvement project was
segmented to circumvent the Act. See River v. Richmond
Metropolitan Authority, 359 F.Supp. 611, 633-636 (E.D. Va.
1973), affd per curiam, 481 F.2d 1280 (4th Cir. 1973).
Plaintiffs submitted, in opposition to the motion, documents
which they contend prove that federal funds have been applied
for. They consist of a letter from the County Department of
Transportation transmitting a county resolution to have Federal
Aid Secondary Route (“FAS”) 122 (the approximately .5
mile segment between Pfingston and Waukegan Roads) pro-
grammed for federal funding; the resolution itself; the Illinois
Department’s letter to the County Department approving the
resolution; a similar set of letters and a resolution concerning
FAS 1013 (the approximately 2 mile segment between
Sanders and Pfingston Roads); and a document entitled
“Draft/Combined Corridor and Design Environment Statement/
Administrative Action for Federal Aid Secondary Routes
1013 & 122,” which is not signed and has “Preliminary
11/16/73” written across it. These documents give no indica-
tion of federal involvement up to that point in the approval
process. Defendants submitted affidavits showing that there has
been no programming by the State of Illinois for federal
funding of the Lake-Cook Road improvement project, and that
no application for federal funds has been made. Counsel for
the Cook County Department of Highways represented at oral
argument that these facts were unchanged.
Thus the documents relied on by plaintiffs show nothing more
than a possibility that federal funds might be applied for. The
affidavits establish that no federal funds have in fact been ap-
plied for.
A33
One case sustained a preliminary injunction against construc-
tion of a highway project for failure to comply with a federal
relocation statute,’ holding that the project for a part of the
federal-aid primary system became a federal-aid highway project
for purposes of that statute when it received location approval’?
prior to any application for federal funds. La Raza Unida v.
Volpe, 488 F.2d 559 (9th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S.
968 (1974). That case was not decided under NEPA, which
applies to proposed major federal actions and not to a federal-
aid secondary designation that took place long before NEPA
was adopted or to possible federal funding that is not proposed
at present. And, as the district court in River v. Richmond
Metropolitan Authority, supra, stated: “Notwithstanding the
fact that La Raza Unida declared a highway project to be fed-
eral early in the planning process, it most assuredly did not hold
that a project could be federal where no federal participation
had ever taken place.” 359 F.Supp. at 634. Possible future fed-
eral funding is all that the plaintiffs in the case at bar have
shown.
The Lake-Cook Road improvement appears from the sum-
mary judgment papers to be a state project on which no federal
action is proposed, and therefore, NEPA’s requirement of an
environmental impact statement does not apply to the project.
See Citizens nt Balanced Environment and Transportation, Inc.
a Sadie athe te tae nt eee ~4
gran court unnecessary
f reach the ques tion of whether defendants also violated NEPA,
plaintiffs. La Raza Unida v. Volpe, 337
F.Supp. "221, 234 (N . Cal. 1971). The Court of Appeals did not
refer to NEPA.
op A wees alg ee Bog alegre Be Appr ng
stage 2 pad pint, which the route is specifically estab-
lished within a corridor which has previously been defined. (/d. at
223-224.) Location a ree S place unless the state
approval
department requests it and ——
aye £- the project. (23 (23 CER. §§ 790.9(e) ( (1), 30208)
Hagan ) Nothing comparable to
the present case.
A34
v. Volpe, 503 F.2d 601 (2d Cir. 1974); Civic Improvement
Committee v. Volpe, 459 F.2d 957 (4th Cir. 1972); cf. Brad-
ford Township Vv. Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, 463
F.2d 537, 540 (7th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1047
(1972).
Count IV: The Equal Protection Challenge
to the Zoning Ordinance
Plaintiffs allege in amended Count IV that the Village of
Northbrook and its trustees have deprived them of the equal
protection of the laws as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amend-
ment and seek a judgment declaring invalid Northbrook’s zon-
ing approval of the proposed shopping center complex and an
injunction “barring future zoning approval until Northbrook
demonstrates that its residents have been subjected to similar
environmental assaults.” Jurisdiction is purportedly predicated
upon 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (federal question); 28 U.S.C. § 2201
(declaratory judgment remedy) ; and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (depriva-
tion of constitutional or federal statutory rights under color of
state law), and its jurisdictional correlative, 28 U.S.C. § 1343.
Plaintiffs allege in substance that, upon information and be-
lief, Northbrook and its trustees have “aggressively protected”
its residential areas from intrusion by massive commercial de-
velopments such as the proposed shopping center complex; that
their action in giving zoning approval to the proposed shopping
center complex will cause the eventual subjection of plaintiffs
to “vast increase in noise and air pollution as well as aesthetic
destruction of the quiet residential character of their com-
munity;” and that by exposing plaintiffs to these environmental
hazards, while protecting Northbrook residents from intrusion
of similar developments, Northbrook has discriminated against
them in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The amend-
ment to the complaint, in which plaintiffs joined the trustees of
the Village of Northbrook as additional defendants, did not
A35
specify any relief sought against them. The village and the
trustees moved to dismiss Count IV of the complaint for want
of jurisdiction as to it under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and for failure to
state a claim for which relief could be granted.
As the District Court correctly held (City of Highland Park
Vv. Train, supra, 374 F.Supp. at 773), there is no jurisdiction
under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 over the claim against the village.
City of Kenosha v. Bruno, 412 U.S. 507, 513 (1973). Assum-
ing the existence of jurisdictional amount, we have jurisdiction
against the village on the claim based upon the Fourteenth
Amendment under 28 U.S.C. § 1331. The absence of any spe-
cific request for relief against the trustees may have justified
dismissal as to them, but in any event the complaint, as
amended, states no claim on which relief could be granted
against either the trustees or the village.
A zoning ordinance is clothed with every presumption of
validity. City of Ann Arbor, Mich. v. Northwest Park Constr.
Corp., 280 F.2d 212, 223 (6th Cir. 1960). Derived from the
states’ police power, the legislative authority which grants
municipalities the power to adopt and enforce zoning ordi-
nances and regulations is not to be narrowly confined. Village
of Belle Terre v. Boraas, 416 U.S. 1, 5-8 (1974); cf. Berman
v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 32-33 (1954). Unless it is based upon
a suspect classification or impinges upon a fundamental right
(see Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas, supra, 416 U.S. at 6,
7), which is not true in the case at bar, zoning legislation may
be held unconstitutional only if it is shown to bear no possible
relationship to the state’s interest in securing the health, safety,
morals, or general welfare of the public and is, therefore, mani-
festly unreasonable and arbitrary. E.g., Village of Euclid v.
Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 395 (1926) ;Gorieb v. Fox,
274 U.S. 603, 610 (1927); Aquino v. Trobiner, 298 F.2d
674, 677 (D.C. Cir. 1961). Thus the scope of judicial review
is limited.
A36
It is well established that “[ijJn the area of economics and
social welfare, a States does not violate the Equal Protection
Clause merely because the classifications made by its law are
imperfect. If the classification has some ‘reasonable basis,’
it does not offend the Constitution simply because . . . ‘in prac-
tice it results in some inequality.’” Dandridge v. Williams, 397
U.S. 471, 485 (1960); see Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas,
supra, 416 U.S. at 8; Sinclair Refining Co. v. City of Chicago,
178 F.2d 214, 217 (7th Cir. 1950). As the Supreme Court
observed in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., supra:
“(Llaws may .. . find their justification in the fact that, in some
fields, the bad fades into the good by such insensible degrees
that the two are not capable of being readily distinguished and
separated in terms of legislation.” (272 U.S. at 389.)
Inherent in all zoning legislation are statutory distinctions
which give rise to claims of disparity of treatment. Inevitably
areas zoned for nonresidential uses will touch areas zoned for
residential uses, and the burden of the zoning always falls most
heavily on the residents adjacent to the boundary. This is
essentially all that plaintiffs have alleged here, except that they
have framed their grievance in the rhetoric of equal protection.
Plaintiff residents of Highland Park and Glenbrook Country-
side allege no classification other than the distinction between
residents in close proximity to the proposed shopping center
and residents who live farther away. Such a classification, in-
herent in all zoning, is not within the purview of the Fourteenth
Amendment. Cf. L’Hote v. City of New. Orleans, 177 U.S. 587,
597 (1899). “Some must suffer by the establishment of any
territorial boundaries. . . . If these limits hurt the [appellants],
other limits would hurt others.”(Jd.) So long as such legisla-
tion applies equally to all persons similarly situated in a given
locale, there can be no violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
Cf. Caskey Baking Co. v. Virginia, 313 U.S. 117, 121 (1941);
United States v. Holmes, 387 F.2d 781, 785 (7th Cir. 1967),
cert. denied, 391 U.S. 936 (1968).
A37
Zoning is not rendered unconstitutional by the fact that
any direct benefit the plaintiffs may receive from it is less than
the possible burdens it may impose upon them. Plaintiffs having
failed in Count IV to state a claim upon which relief can be
granted, the District Court’s dismissal of that count is affirmed.
The Petition for Review
On January 6, 1975, plaintiffs filed in this court a petition
for review, No. 75-1006, seeking review of the significant
deterioration regulations promulgated by the Administrator on
December 5, 1974. That petition which states as petitioners’
sole grievance the Administrator’s failure to promulgate signif-
icant deterioration regulations with respect to carbon monoxide
and other automobile related pollutants was consolidated with
No. 74-1271 on the representation by petitioners that the same
substantive issues were involve in the two cases, the court
viewing the petition for review as an attempt by petitioners to
“safeguard their jurisdictional grounds.” (Order of February
11, 1975, denying motion to reconsider consolidation. )
No brief has been submitted in support of the petition for
review. We therefore do not have the benefit of petitioners’
views as to the appropriateness of a petition for review to
compel the Administrator to act. We think, however, that the
function of a petition for review is to invoke a review for
correctness by the Court of Appeals of regulations adopted
by the Administrator and not to compel the Administrator to
act when he has failed to act. Petitioners, in their petition for
review, do not challenge the significant deterioration regulations
on particulate matter and sulfur dioxide which the Admin-
istrator has promulgated. Their petition rather complains that
the Administrator “continues in his failure” to promulgate
regulations relating to carbon monoxide and other motor vehicle
related pollutants. The appropriate procedure for compelling
the Administration to act is that provided in section
A38
304(a), supra, which expressly provides for an action in the
district court “against the Administrator when there is alleged
a failure of the Administrator to perform any act or duty under
this Act which is not discretionary with the Administrator.”
Plaintiffs recognized this when they brought their action under
section 304(a), but they failed to give statutory notice that
would have made their action viable. The petition for review
is dismissed.
AFFIRMED in No. 74-1271; Petition for Réview DisMissED
in No. 75-1006.
A39
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
July 24, 1975
Before
Hon WALTER J. CUMMINGS, Circuit Judge
Hon. ROBERT A. SPRECHER, Circuit Judge
Hon. Puitie W. Tone, Circuit Judge
‘ ,
Tue Crry or HIGHLAND Park, mr ete
ILLINOIS, etc., et al. :
peri , for the Northern Dis-
Plaintiffs-Appellants, | trict of Illinois, East-
No. 74-1271 vs. ,
No. 73 C 3027
RUSSELL E. TRAIN, etc., et al., Bernard M. Decker,
Defendants-A ppellees. ' Judge.
No. 75-1006 :
Tue CiTy oF HIGHLAND PARK,
ILLINOIS, etc., et al.,
Petitioners, Petition for Review of
an Order of the En-
vironmental Protec-
vs. tion Agency.
RUSSELL E. TRAM, etc., et al.,
Respondents. |
A40
ORDER
The opinion filed June 10, 1975 is revised and corrected in
the respects shown in the revised and corrected opinion filed
this date.
The petition for rehearing is denied.
A4l
OPINION MODIFIED BY JUDGE TONE
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
July 24, 1975
Before
Hon WALTER J. CUMMINGS, Circuit Judge
Hon. ROBERT A. SPRECHER, Circuit Judge
Hon. Puitip W. TONE, Circuit Judge
Tue Crry or HIGHLAND Park, _) “Ppeal from the United
mreecraeas | "Bas Bet Cou
Plaintiffs-Appellants, | trict of Mlinois, East-
No. 74-1271 vs. > era Division
No. 73 C 3027
RUSSELL E. TRAIN, etc., et al.,
Bernard M. Decker,
Defendants-A ppellees. : Judge.
THe Ciry oF HIGHLAND PARK, )
ILLINOIS, etc., et al.,
Petitioners, | Petition for Review of
. an Order of the En-
No. 75-1006 vs. vironmental Protec-
tion Agency.
RUuSSELL E. TRAIN, etc., et al.,
Respondents. }
A42
These causes came on to be heard on the transcript of the
record from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois, Eastern Division, and the Environmental
Protection Agency, and were argued by counsel. On June 10,
1975 an opinion was entered by this Court.
On consideration whereof, it is ordered and adjudged by this
Court that the judgment of the said District Court in appeal No.
74-1271 be and the same is hereby AFFIRMED, with costs, and
the Petition for Review in appeal No. 75-1006 be and the same
is hereby DISMISSED, in accordance with the modified opinion
of this Court filed this date.
A43
OPINION BY JUDGE TONE
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
June 10, 1975
Before
Hon WALTER J. CuMMINGS, Circuit Judge
Hon. ROBERT A. SPRECHER, Circuit Judge
Hon. PHitie W. TONE, Circuit Judge
THE Crry oF HIGHLAND PARK, ny at
ILLINOIS, etc., et al.,
for the Northern Dis-
Plaintiffs-Appellants, | trict of Illinois, East-
No. 74-1271 vs. >. ae
No. 73 C 3027
RUSSELL E. TRAIN, etc., et al.
ec ; Bernard M. Decker,
Defendants-A ppellees. ; - Judge. -
THE City OF HIGHLAND PARK,
ILLINOIS, etc., et al.,
Petitioners, | Petition for Review of
an Order of the En-
No. 75-1006 vs. - vironmental Protec-
tion Agency.
RUSSELL E. TRAM, etc., et al.,
Respondents. |
A44
These causes came on to be heard on the transcript of the
record from the United States District Court for the Northern
Protection Agency, and were argued by counsel.
On consideration whereof, it is ordered and adjudged by
this court that the judgment of the said District Court in appeal
No. 74-1271 be and the same is hereby AFFIRMED, with costs,
and the Petition for Review in appeal No. 75-1006 be and the
same is hereby DisMISSED, in accordance with the opinion of this
court filed this day.
A45
IN THE UNITED STATES CouRT OF APPEALS
For the Seventh Circuit
No. 74-1271
THE Ciry OF HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS, ETC., ET AL.,
Plaintiffs-A ppellants,
Vv.
RUuSSELL E. TRAIN, BTC., ET AL.,
Defendants-A ppellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern
ae 6 ee ee 73 C 3027
Bernard M. Decker, Judge.
No. 75-1006
THE City OF HIGHLAND Park, ILLINOIS, ETC., ET AL.,
Petitioners,
Vv.
RUssELL E. Train, as Administrator of the United States
Environmental Protection Agency, and UNITED STATES
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondents.
Petition for Review of an Order of the
Argued Februrary 21, 1975—-Decided June 10, 1975
Before CUMMINGS, SPRECHER and TONE, Circuit Judges.
Tonge, Circuit Judge. In the principal case before us in
these consolidated proceedings, No. 74-1271, plaintiffs sue to
block the construction of a shopping center and the extension
A46
and widening of the road along which the shopping center is to
be built, relying upon the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, the
National Environmental Protection Act, and the Equal Protec-
tion Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They seek to compel
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to
promulgate “indirect source” and “significant deterioration”
regulations which they hope would preclude the construction
of the shopping center and the road expansion (Counts I and
II) and to enjoin the road expansion until the Department of
Transportation has filed an environmental impact statement
pursuant to the National Environmental Protection Act (Count
Ill). Plaintiffs also allege that the Village of Northbrook has
denied them equal protection by the adoption of a zoning ordi-
nance which permits the construction of the shopping center
(Count IV).
The District Court dismissed the claims under the Clean Air
Amendments for failure to comply with the 60-day notice
requirement of section 304, 42 U.S.C. § 1857h-2, for failure
to state a claim on which relief can be granted, and on the
ground that some of the relief requested was already the subject
of orders issued by other federal courts. Finding it undisputed
that there was no federal involvement in the road expansion
project, the court granted summary judgment on the claim
that an environmental impact statement should have been filed.
The equal protection claim was also held to be without merif.
The court entered an order dismissing the action, City of High-
land Park v. Train, 374 F.Supp. 758 (N.D. Ill. 1974), from
which plaintiffs appeal and which we affirm.
Plaintiffs are two municipalities adjacent to the site of the
proposed shopping center, a non-profit corporation dedicated
to protecting the environment in the area, and various indi-
viduals who reside near the site. The defendants are the Ad-
ministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the agency
itself, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, the
department itself, the Department of Highways of Cook County,
A47
Illinois, the developers of the shopping center, proposed tenants
of the shopping center, the Village of Northbrook, in which the
shopping center will be located, and the trustees of the village.
The right of way of Lake-Cook Road extends from Lake
Michigan along the entire boundary between Lake and Cook
Counties to the western end of the boundary and continues on
west to the Fox River. Between Milwaukee Avenue and Rand
Road, the road is not completed. Where it is completed, it is, for
the most part, two lanes wide. In 1967 the Cook County High-
way Department initiated plans to expand the completed por-
tions of the road to four lanes and to construct a four-lane
extension on the right-of-way where no actual roadway presently
exists.
In January, 1973, certain of the defendants anounced a plan
for the construction of a shopping center on the south side of
Lake-Cook Road between Skokie Highway and Waukegan
Road. The shopping center, according to the complaint, will
occupy one million square feet, have a parking lot accommodat-
ing 5,000 cars, and generate 28,400 vehicle trips per day.
Ninety percent or more of this traffic will be carried by Lake-
Cook Road, the only through-street which provides access to
the shopping center. Plaintiffs allege that this traffic “will over-
whelm even the proposed four lane expanded roadway,” and
cause “intolerable” congestion at the intersections of Lake-Cook
Road and Skokie Highway and Waukegan Road. As a result,
residents of the area will be subjected to substantial “noise
and discomfort in the use of their homes and in the use of the
streets in their community” and will be exposed to increases in
the concentration of carbon monoxide in the ambient air by
more than 66 percent over existing levels.
The Clean Air Amendments
and Their Implementation
To explain plaintiffs’ claims under the Clean Air Amend-
ments of 1970, it is necessary to begin by summarizing pertinent
parts of that legislation and its implementation by actions of the
A48
Administrator and the states and by certain court decisions.
The background and a more complete history of the amend-
ments and their implementation to date appear in Mr. Justice
Rehnquist's opinion for the Supreme Court in Train v. Natural
Resources Defense Council, Inc.. 43 U.S.L.W. 4467 (US.
April 16, 1975).
When the states did not act to fulfill their “primary responsi-
bility” for prevention of air pollution under earlier federal clean
air legislation. “Congress reacted by taking a Stick to the states
in the form of the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, Pub. L.
91-604, 84 Stat. 1676, enacted on December 31 of that year.”
Train V. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., supra. 43
U.S.L.W. at 4468. The 1970 Amendments established a pro-
gram to control air pollution to be carried out by the federal
government and the states. The parts of the Amendments
pertinent here may be summarized as follows:
The Administrator was required, before specified dates, to
publish a list of air pollutants and issue “air quality criteria”
containing information about each listed pollutant and its effects
on the air. (Section 108, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—3.) He was also
required to establish national “ambient air quality standards”
for each air pollutant for which air quality criteria were issued.
(Section 109, 52 U.S.C. § 1857c—4.) The states have primary
authority to establish “implementation plans” to achieve these
standards, but these plans are subject to review by the Admihi-
strator. (Section 110, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S.)
Two sets of standards were to be prescribed by the Admini-
strator, “primary standards,” the “attainment and maintenance
of which, in the judgment of the Administrator, based on [air
quality] criteria and allowing an adequate margin of safety, are
requisite to protect the public health;” and “secondary stand-
ards,” which “shall specify a level of air quality the attainment
and maintenance of which, in the judgment of the Administrator,
based on such criteria, is requisite to protect the public welfare
from any known or anticipated adverse effects associated with
A49
the presence of such air pollutants in the ambient air.” (Section
109(b), 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—4(b).) The Administrator pre-
scribed these standards within the time allowed him by the Act.
Within nine months after the Administrtor’s promulgation
of the national standards, each state was to submit to him a
plan providing for the “implementation, maintenance, and en-
forcement” of the standards. (Section 110(a)(1), 42 U.S.C.
§ 1857c—5(a) (1). Each state plan was required to provide for
the attainment of the national primary standards “as expedi-
tiously as practicable” and not later than three years after the
date the Administrator approved the plan. (Section 110(a) (2)
(A)(i), 42 U.S.C. § 1857c-—5(a)(2)(A)(i.) The national
secondary standards were to be met within a “reasonable time”
to be specified in the plan. (Section 110(a)(2)(A) (ii), 42
U.S.C. § 1857c-—5S(a)(2)(A)(ii).) Each state plan was to
include “emission limitations, schedules, and timetables for com-
pliance with such limitations, and such other measures as may
be necessary to insure attainment and maintenance of such pri-
mary or secondary standard, including, but not limited to, land-
use and transportation controls.” (Section 110(a)(2)(B), 42
US.C. § 1857c—5(a)(2)(B).) Other prerequisites to ap-
proval by the Administrator are set forth in the Act. (Section
110(a)(2)(C) through (H), 42 U.S.C. § 1857~-—5(a)(2)(C)
through (H).)
Within four months after the date a state plan was required
to be submitted, the Administrator was required to review the
plan to determine whether it satisfied the statutory requirements
and to approve or disapprove the plan or each portion thereof.
Section 110(a), 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—5(a). If the Administrator
determined that a state’s plan or any portion thereof did not
satisfy the statutory requirements, he was to disapprove the
plan, or the offending portion thereof, and, within six months
after the date the plan was required to be submitted, promulgate
his own implementation plan or portion thereof for that state.
(Section 110(c)(1), 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S(c)(1).)
ASO
Significant Deterioration Regulations
During the period he was reviewing state plans, the Ad-
ministrator questioned his authority to require those plans to
protect against “significant deterioration” of air quality in areas
in which the air was cleaner than required by the national
in pollution violative of the national standards. He took the
position that he would not demand such provisions in state
plans. See Sierra Club v. Ruckelshaus, 344 F Supp. 253, 254
(D.D.C. 1972), affd per curiam, 4 E.R.C. 1815 (D.C.Cir.
1972), aff'd by an equally divided Court sub nom. Fri v. Sierra
Club, 412 U.S. 541 (1973). In the Sierra Club case the court
held, on motion for preliminary injunction, that the Admini-
strator had a non-discretionary duty to protect the air quality
from significant deterioration and issued a preliminary injunc-
pollution levels of clean air to rise to the secondary standard
level of pollution.” 344 F.Supp. at 256.’ The court ordered the
Administrator to promulgate proposed significant deterioration
regulations within six months as to any state plan which per-
mitted or failed to take measures sufficient to prevent significant
deterioration. 2 E.L.R. 20262, 20263.
As a result of that decision the Administrator again reviewed
all state implementation plans and disapproved them to the éX-
tent that they failed to prevent significant deterioration of air
quality. (40 C.F.R. § 52.21 (1974), 37 Fed. Reg. 23,836
(Nov. 9, 1972).) One of the plans affected was that of Illinois,
which had been submitted to the Administrator on January 31,
1972, and given partial approval on May 26, 1972. (40 C.F.R.
§ 52.722 (1974), 37 Fed. Reg. 10,842 (May 31, 1972).) In
response to his duty under the court’s order in the Sierra Club
1. See also Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Train,
489 F.2d 390, 408 (Sth Cir. 1974), rev'd on other grounds, supra
43 U.S.L.W. 4467; Exxon Corp. v. City of New York, 372 F Supp.
335, 339 (SDNY. 1974). -
AS1
case the Administrator proposed (38 Fed. Reg. 18,986 (July
16, 1973)) and reproposed (39 Fed. Reg. 31,000 (Aug. 27,
1974)) rules on the prevention of significant air quality de-
terioration. Eventually he promulgated regulations for two of
the six air pollutants for which he had earlier promulgated
national ambient air quality standards under his statutory duty.”
(39 Fed. Reg. 42,510 (Dec. 5, 1974).) These regulations are
intended to prevent significant deterioration in the quality of
air for two pollutants, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide,
by limiting increases in the concentrations of those pollutants
in areas where the present level of pollution is less than re-
quired by the national ambient air quality standards. This is
to be accomplished by dividing those areas in which the level
of pollution does not presently exceed the national ambient air
quality standards into three classes in which increases in con-
centration of the two pollutants are limited by different amounts.
The Administrator originally classified all areas, but the states,
after a public hearing and subject to other requirements, may
submit to the Administrator proposals for reclassification of areas.
No final regulations have been promulgated for the other four
pollutants as of yet. The Administrator, therefore, has not yet
complied with the Sierra Club order.
Indirect Source Regulations
When the Administrator gave partial approval to the Illinois
implementation plan on May 26, 1972, he also granted to
Illinois, as he did to a number of other states, extensions until
February 15, 1973, to submit the transportation portion of its
2. The six pollutants originally identified were sulfur dioxide,
matter, carbon monoxide, oxidants,
ebens, and meen Gueee: £55 R. §§ 50.4—S50.11 (i974).)
The original proposed rules referred to in the text
A5S2
implementation plan. Several other states were given until
mid-1977 to attain the national primary standards. (37 Fed.
Reg. 10,842 (May 31, 1972).) The Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia, on a petition for review, held that
this extension was not authorized by the Act, and also found
that the record did not show whether the Administrator had
conducted a state-by-state determination on the efficacy of the
state plans to provide for the maintenance of the primary and
secondary standards beyond May 31, 1975. National Resources
Defense Council, Inc. v. EPA, 475 F.2d 968, 970, 971-972
(D.C. Cir. 1973). The court established a new time schedule
under which the Administrator was to review the maintenance
provisions of the state plans and disapprove those which he de-
termined did not contain sufficient measures for maintenance of
the primary standard. (Id. at 972.) In this re-examination, the
Administrator found that none of the state plans, including that
of Illinois, contained adequate provisions for insuring the
maintenance of national standards, but granted the states an-
other opportunity to develop adequate programs. (40 C.F.R.
§ 52.22(a) (1974), 38 Fed. Reg. 6280 (March 8, 1973).)
The Administrator, pursuant to the order of the Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia in Natural Resources De-
fense Council, Inc. vy. EPA, then promulgated regulations to
insure the maintenance of national standards by requiring state
implementation plans to contain procedures for review of “any
new stationary source or modification that might “interfere
with attainment or maintenance of a standard either directly
because of emissions from it, or indirectly, because of emissions
resulting from mobile source activities associated with it.” (40
C.F.R. § 51.18 (1974), 38 Fed. Reg. 15,834, 15,836 (June
18, 1973).) He suggested guidelines to assist the states in
complying with the requirements of section 51.18. (See Ap-
pendix O to 40 C.F.R. § 51.18.)
The Administrator was also required by National Resources
Defense Council, Inc. v. EPA, to promulgate indirect source
J
A53
‘review regulations if states either failed to submit such regu-
lations on their own or submitted inadequate regulations. (475
F.2d at 971.) In response to that requirement the Administrator
proposed regulations (38 Fed. Reg. 29,893 (Oct. 30, 1973)),
and, after public hearing in 43 states, promulgated them. (40
C.F.R. § 52.22 (1974), 39 Fed. Reg. 7270 (Feb. 25, 1974).)
He also determined that since the plans of most states; including
Illinois, contained inadequate provisions for review of indirect
sources as required by section 51.18, the provisions of section
52.22(b) would be incorporated by reference and made a part
of each of those plans. (See, e.g., 40 C.F.R. § 52.736 (1974).)
An indirect source is defined by the regulation as “a facility,
building, structure, or installation which attracts or may attract
mobile source activities that results in emissions or a pollutant
for which there is a national standard,” for example a “[p]ark-
ing facility.” (40 C.F.R. § 52.22(b) (i) (1974).) The regula-
tion applies to any indirect source on which construction or
modification is to commence after December 31, 1974. The
Administrator later amended the indirect source regulations in
respects not material here. (39 Fed. Reg. 25,292 (July 9,
1974).)
The Motion to Dismiss the Appeal
A motion by the defendants who are the developers of the
shopping center to dismiss the appeal in No. 74-1271 against
them and a prospective tenant was taken under advisement
with the case. These defendants argue that a 1974 amendment
to the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 1857c-5(c)(2)(C),
(D)) and the promulgation of indirect source regulations moot
Count I, the only part of the case concerning them, and that
no case or controversy between them and the plaintiffs is raised
in the plaintiffs’ briefs because of failure to comply with Rule
28(a)(5), Fed. R. App. P., which requires a short state-
ment of the relief sought. The mootness ground is without
merit, because plaintiffs seek in Count I not only promulgation
A5S4
of indirect source regulations, but also an injunction against
construction of the shopping center until proper regulations have
been promulgated. Since the developer defendants and the
tenant defendants were necessary parties in a claim seeking such
an injunction, the case is not moot as to them. The failure to
state the relief sought against these defendants is not a basis
for dismissal of the appeal as to them in the circumstances of
this case. We therefore deny the motion to dismiss and turn to
the merits of the appeal. ‘
Counts I and Il: The Regulations
In Count I of their complaint plaintiffs allege that the
Administrator has been in violation of the provisions of the
Act requiring him to issue two kinds of regulations: (a) signif-
icant deterioration regulations, preventing the significant deter-
ioration of air quality in areas with air cleaner than national
standards (as stated above, such regulations as to two of the
six pollutants in question have now been promulgated); and
(b) indirect source regulations, preventing violations of the
national air quality standards by indirect sources (as stated
above, these regulations have now been promulgated). They
seek an order requiring him to promulgate those regulations
and to halt further construction of the shopping center until
its plans have been reviewed by the Administrator under both
sets of regulations he is required to promulgate. In Count II
the plaintiffs reallege that the Administrator has been in vio-
lation of his statutory duty to promulgate significant deteriora-
tion and indirect source regulations. In this count, however,
they seek to halt construction of the Lake-Cook Road expan-
sion and improvement project until its plans have been reviewed
by the Administrator under both sets of regulations. To facili-
tate understanding of our analysis, we will divide our discus-
sion of plaintiffs’ claims by considering separately plaintiffs’
rights to obtain promulgation of the two sets of regulations
ASS
rather than by considering separately Counts I and II of their
complaint.
Review of the Indirect Source Regulations
The Administrator having promulgated indirect source regu-
lations after the complaint was filed, plaintiffs’ grievance now
is that those regulations exempt indirect sources on which con-
struction was commenced before January 1, 1975, as it was
on the shopping center involved in this case,
Section 307(b) (1) of the Amendments, 42 U.S.C. §1857h—
5b) (1), provides in pertinent part:
“A petition for review of the Administrator’s actiog in. . .
promulgating any implementation plan under section
1857c—5 of this title [section 110 of the Amendments]...
may be filed only in the United States Court of Appeals
for the appropriate circuit.”
The indirect source regulations are subject to this section. Enti-
tled “Review of Indirect Sources” (39 Fed. Reg. 7270-7285 -
(Feb. 25,'1974)), they purport to be promulgated pursuant
to section 110, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S. It is so stated in the
Administrator’s comments in the first part of the regulations.
Furthermore, the regulations contain the subtitle, “Approval and
Promulgation of Implementation Plans,” which is the statutory
language used in section 307. The regulations set out the nation-
al standards for regulation of indirect sources, disapprove vari-
ous parts of state implementation plans, and incorporate the
federal standards into those plans. For example, Subpart O
deals with Ilinois and provides:
“Subpart O—Tllinois
“25. Subpart O is amended by adding § 52.736 as fol-
lows:
“§ 52.736 Review of new sources and modifications.
“(a) The requirements of § 51.18 of this chapter are not
met because the State failed to submit a plan for review
of new or modified indirect sources.
A56
“(b) Regulation for review of new or modified indirect
sources. The provisions of § 52.22(b) of this chapter are
hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of the
applicable implementation plan for the State of Illinois.”
39 Fed. Reg. at 7281.
Since the regulations incorporate the federal standards into the
state plans, the Administrator is in effect promulgating imple-
mentation plans where state plans are deficient, in accordance
with section 110(c) (42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S), which is to be
reviewed only under section 307(b)(1) (42 U.S.C. § 1857h—
5(b)(1)).
Other courts of appeals have held under analogous circum-
stances that a petition for review under section 307(b)(1) is
the exclusive method of review. In Getty Oil Co. v. Ruckels
haus, 467 F.2d 349, 355-356 (3d Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 409
U.S. 1125 (1973), the court refused to permit, in an action
filed in the district court, what amounted to an attack on the
compliance date in regulation in the Delaware plan limiting the
amount of sulfur content in burning fuel, holding that the
sole remedy was a petition for review to the court of appeals
under section 307(b)(1). Also supporting the rule that a peti-
tion under that section is the sole remedy for reviewing the
promulgation or implementation of clean air plans and regu-
lations are Plan for Arcadia, Inc. v. Anita Associates, 501 F.2d
390, 392 (9th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, ... U.S. —.. 95 &.Ct.
517 (1974); and Anaconda Co. v. Ruckelshaus, 482 F.2d
1301, 1304 (10th Cir. 1973). One district court decision is
squarely in point, Pinkney v, Ohio Environmental Protection
Agency, 375 F.Supp. 305, 309 (N.D. Ohio 1974), in which the
alternative ground for dismissal of a challenge to the 180-day
delay in the effective date of the indirect source regulations
was that the exclusive remedy was a petition for review under
section 307(b)(1). Similarly, in Delaware Citizens for Clean
Air, Inc. Vv. Stauffer Chemical Co., 367 F.Supp. 1040, 1046
(D. Del. 1973), the court refused, on the same ground, to
AS7
entertain an action to challenge a state-granted variance from
compliance with a sulfur dioxide emission regulation, which the
Administrator had treated as a deferral of compliance amount-
ing to a revision of the state implementation plan and approved
as such. See West Penn Power Co. v. Train, 378 F.Supp. 941,
944-945 (W.D. Pa. 1974); cf. Luneburg and Roselle, Judicial
Review Under the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, 15 B.C.
Ind. & Com. L. Rev. 667, 691 n. 145 (1974).
Plaintiffs attempt to characterize the regulations’ exemption
of any facility on which construction was started before Janu-
ary 1, 1975 as a failure to promulgate regulations with respect
to such facilities. We think, however, that a provision defining
the scope of regulations and their effective date is as much a
part of the regulations as the substantive parts.
The explanations contained in the regulations for the exemp-
tion clause are “recent firm congressional guidelines contained
in amendments to the Clean Air Act,” compelling administra-
tive reasons, and the need to minimize disruptive effects on
industry. (39 Fed. Reg. at 7272-7273.) A review of the suffi-
ciency of these reasons requires an examination of the admin-
istrative record, which is not before us now but would be if
this were a petition for review.
The exemption provision is an integral part of the regulations
and, like any other part, must be reviewed in a petition for re-
view. It cannot be reviewed by an action filed in the district
court.
Plaintiffs have in fact filed a separate petition for review of
the indirect source regulations in this court (No. 74-1231), and
that petition, together with others filed in various other circuits
on the EPA’s motion to the Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia (No. 74-1595 in that court). Their contentions
concerning the validity of the exemption provision will pre-
sumably be determined in that litigation.
AS58
The Failure to Promulgate Significant Deterioration Regulations
for Automobile-Related Pollutants
Regulations for two air pollutants, particulate matter and sul-
fur dioxide, having been promulgated after the complaint was
filed (see note 2, supra), plaintifis now seek to require the
Administrator to promulgate regulations for carbon monoxide
and the other automobile-related pollutants for which he had
established national ambient air standards. -
As the District Court pointed out, the Administrator has
already been ordered in Sierra Club v. Ruckelshaus, supra, to
promulgate significant deterioration regulations. Counsel for
the government, in their brief in this court, represented that the
Administrator had complied with this order, and “[tJherefore,
since the significant deterioration regulations have already been
published, the issue of any prior failure to promulgate them is
rendered moot.” Because, as is apparent from the regulations
and the Administrator’s introductory statement accompanying
them (39 Fed. Reg. 42,510 (Dec. 5, 1974)), and as counsel
for the government acknowledged during oral argument, the
regulations that have been promulgated relate to only two of
the six identified pollutants, the case is not moot as to this
point. Whether there is a need for a second order against the
Administrator to do that which he has already been ordered
to do in the Sierra Club case is a question we need not reach,
because we find that this claim is not maintainable by plain-
tiffs at this time.
Section 304(a) of the Amendments, 42 U.S.C. § 1857h—
2(a), provides in pertinent part as follows:
“Except as provided in subsection (b), any person may
commence a civil action on his own behalf—
“(2) against the Administrator where there is alleged a
failure of the Administrator to perform any act or duty
under this Act which is not discretionary with the Aamin-
istrator.”
A59
Subsection (b), 42 U.S.C. § 1857h—2(b), imposes the follow-
ing limitation upon this right to sue:
“No action may be commenced—
“(2) under subsection (a)(2) of this section prior to 60
eee ee eee nee
Plaintiffs failed to give the Administrator sixty days notice
prior to commencing suit, which the District Court held was
fatal to its jurisdiction. The court reasoned that the purpose of
the sixty-day notice requirement was to give the Administrator
time to assess and respond to difficult, multi-count lawsuits, to
deploy attorneys from Washington, if necessary, and to arrange
for the on-going process of regulatory development and other
substantive EPA concerns despite the interruption caused by a
pending lawsuit, The statute’s sixty-day notice requirement
would be nullified, said the court, if plaintiffs were required to
do nothing more than comply with Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(a), which
grants the United States, or an officer or employee thereof, sixty
days in which to answer a complaint in any civil suit. City of
Highland Park v. Train, supra, 374 F.Supp. at 766-767. In
accord with the District Court’s holding are Pinkney v. Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency, supra, 375 F.Supp. at 308
and West Penn Power Co. v. Train, supra, 378 F.Supp. at 944.
Cf. Metropolitan Washington Coalition for Clean Air v. Dis-
trict of Columbia, 373 F.Supp. 1089, 1092 (D.D.C. 1974).*
A60
Contra, Riverside v. Ruckelshaus, 4 E.R.C. 1728 (C.D. Cal.
1972).°
The legislative history of section 304 shows Congress’s deter-
mination that citizen participation in the enforcement of stand-
ards and regulations under the Clear Air Act of 1970 be estab-
lished. It also shows, however, that Congress intended to pro-
vide for citizens’ suits in a manner that would be least likely
to clog already burdened federal courts and most likely to trigger
governmental action which would alleviate any need for judicial
relief. It was in response to these concerns that the statutory
notice provisions were included in section 304.° Congress’s in-
tention would be frustrated if the statutory mandate of section
304(b) were ignored.’
The language chosen by Congress makes it clear that the
Administrator is to be given notice in addition to that required
by Rule 12(a), Fed. R. Civ. P., which allows him sixty days
to answer or move against a complaint by which an action is
commenced. Section 304(b)’s statutory command plainly states
that “[n]o action may be commenced . . . prior to 60 days
after the plaintiff has given notice of such action to the Admin-
3. © cetly wal Ge cane eae amet ee
failure to comply with the statutory notice
304(b) (2) barred jurisdiction under the Clean’ Air Act, the River.
side court found that personal service on the Administrator led
with a lnpeo of slaty Supe between tho dats af Waar Wie Gammiaait
and the date of completion of a hearing on plaintiff's request‘for a
preliminary injunction, amounted to “substantial compliance” with
the a oa notice requirement and gave the Administrator “the
ect” of the requirement. (4 E.R.C. at 1731.)
6. See S. Rep. No. 1196, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., 36-39 (1970),
reproduced at 116 . Rec. 32926-27 (1970); 116 . Rec.
33102-03 (1970); . Rep. No. 91-178, 91st Cong., Sess.,
U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News 5374, 5388 (1970).
7. See Steinberg, Is the Citizen Suit a Substitute for the Class
Action in Environmental Litigation? An Examination of the Clean
Air Act of 1970 Citizen Suit Provision, on tee AE ne 107,
132 (1974), which discusses the beneficial pte the statutory
notice provision of section 304 has in allowing the EPA an oppor-
tunity to react to citizen complaints before a suit is filed, in some
cases obviating the need for citizen suits.
A61
istrator.” (Emphasis supplied.) Plaintiffs made no attempt what-
soever to comply with the notice provision, and their suit there-
fore could not properly be commenced.
Alternatively, plaintiffs also rely on statutory mandamus,’
28 U.S.C. § 1361, which provides that “district courts shall have
8. = eS re ete ee See 2 ee
ee ae es 1360, ‘plakediie allege aot oc
statutory mandamus, 28 U § 1361 t juris-
diction over the present case also exists under section 10 of the
Ses eo ee §§ 701-706, the Declaratory
Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201-2202, and the general federal
tion jurisdiction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331. We need not consider
ese latter bases for jurisdiction, however, for even assuming that
v. Seamans, 411 F.2d 767, 773 n. 11 (5
397 U.S. 941 (1970).
A62
need not be concerned with defining the jurisdictional reach of
that section. However broad its scope, mandamus cannot be
invoked to require the District Court to order the Administrator
to promulgate significant deterioration regulations.
The traditional principles generally recognized as controlling
the issuance cf a writ of mandamus were concisely stated by
the court in Lovallo v. Froehlke, 468 F.2d 340, 343 (2d Cir.
1972), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 918 (1973), as follows:
“(1) aclear right in the plaintiff to the relief sought; (2)
a plainly defined and peremptory duty on the part of the
defendant to do the act in question; and (3) no other
adequate remedy available.”
See also United States ex rel. Girard Trust Co, vy. Helvering, 301
U.S. 540, 543-544 (1937).
There is, as we have seen, another remedy available that pro-
vided in section 304(a)(2) of the Clean Air Amendments of
1970, which affords any person a direct remedy to compel
the Administrator to perform a non-discretionary duty. We can-
not say that remedy which is available upon compliance with
the notice provision of section 304(b) (2) is inadequate. Further-
more, if mandamus were held to be available as an alternative
to a citizen’s suit under section 304(a)(2), Congress would
have accomplished nothing whatsoever by providing for the
citizen’s suit, or by imposing the sixty-day notice requirement
of section 304(b) (2). The remedy of mandamus is not designed
to circumvent a condition to suit properly imposed by Congress.
It is, accordingly, unnecessary for us to reach the question of
whether there exists that “plainly defined” duty (Lovallo v.
Froehlke, supra, 468 F.2d at 343), the performance of which is
positively commanded and so plainly prescribed as to be free
from doubt (United States v. Walker, 409 F.2d 477, 481 (9th
Cir. 1969)), that is necessary to warrant the issuance of a writ
of mandamus. We do note that the mater was doubtful enough
to cause the Administrator, whose expertise in interpreting the
statute is entitled to weight, to conclude that the duty did not
A63
exist and to cause the Supreme Court in the Sierra Club case
to divide equally on the question of whether he was right. But
cf. Roberts v. United States, 176 U.S. 221, 231 (1899).
Disposition as to Counts I and II
Since neither judicial review of the indirect source regula-
tions nor mandatory relief to compel the promulgation of sig-
nificant deterioration regulations for pollutants related to auto-
mobiles is available in the proceedings before us, there is no
predicate in the allegations of Counts I and II for plaintiffs’
demand for an injunction against further construction on the
highway expansion and the shopping center until their claims con-
cerning these regulations are finally resolved. We cannot find at
this stage a sufficient likelihood that regulations entitling plain-
tiffs to such injunctive relief will ultimately be promulgated
to justify an award of injunctive relief. We therefore affirm the
dismissal of Counts I and II.
Count Ill: Absence of an Environmental
Impact Statement
Plaintiffs allege in Count III that portions of the expansion
of Lake-Cook Road are to be constructed with federal funds,
and that the United States Department of Transportation was
therefore required by the National Environmental Policy Act
of 1969 (“NEPA,” 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321, et seg.) to prepare an
environmental impact statement concerning the expansion, which
has not been prepared. They seek an order requiring the prepara-
tion of such a statement and an injunction prohibiting the
construction of the improvements on the road by Cook County
Department of Highways until the statement is prepared. The
motions to dismiss by the defendants under this count were
supported and opposed by affidavits and documents, and there-
fore were treated by the District Court, under the authority of
Rule 12(c), Fed. R. Civ. P., as motions for summary judgment.
The court granted the motions.
A64
Plaintiffs now question the propriety of deciding the issues
under Count III by a summary judgment. They appear not to
have raised this question when they submitted matter outside
the pleadings in Opposition to the motions, and did not suggest
in their papers in opposition in the District Court the existence
of any other evidence bearing on the issues. They had ample
opportunity to present all material pertinent to the motion. The
court properly determined that there was no genuine issue as
to any material fact.
NEPA requires each federal agency, before taking any “major
Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human
environment,” to prepare a “detailed statement” analyzing,
among other things, “the environmental impact of the proposed
action.” (42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C).) “Actions” include projects
supported in whole or in part by federal funding. (40 C.F.R.
§ 1500.5(a)(2) (1974).) Plaintiffs contend that federal fund-
ing has been requested for a 2.47 n¥le segment of the Lake-
Cook Road, and that therefore the requirements of NEPA are
applicable to the entire road expansion project.
the 2.47 mile segment of the road has received “federal-aid
secondary system” designation. Designation, however, is merely
the first step in the procedure for obtaining federal funds for
highway improvement. The Federal-Aid Highway Acts indicate
that before federal funding is obtained the project must be
programmed by a state agency for federal funding and then
approved by both the state highway department and federal
authorities. (23 U.S.C. §§ 103(c), (f), 105, and 106.) It is
enactment of NEPA, and there is accordingly no basis for a
contention that the road improvement project was segmented
to circumvent the Act. See River v. Richmond Metropolitan
Authority, 359 F.Supp. 611, 633-636 (E.D. Va. 1973), affd
per curiam, 481 F.2d 1280 (4th Cir. 1973).
A65
Plaintiffs submitted, in opposition to the motion, documents
for. They consist of a letter from the County Department of
Transportation transmitting a county resolution to have Federal
Aid Secondary Route (“FAS”) 122 (the approximately .5 mile
segment between Pfingston and Waukegan Roads) programmed
for federal funding; the resolution itself; the Hlinois Depart-
ment's letter to the County Department approving the resolution;
a similar set of letters and a resolution concerning FAS 1013
(the approximately 2 mile segment between Sanders and
Pfingston Roads); and a document entitled “Draft/Combined
Corridor and Design Environmental Statement/Administrative
Action for Federal Aid Secondary Routes 1013 & 122,” which
is not signed and has “Preliminary 11/16/73” written across
it. These documents give no indication of federal involvement
up to that point in the approval process. Defendants submitted
affidavits showing that there has been no programming by the
State of Illinois for federal funding of the Lake-Cook Road
improvement project, and that no application for federal funds
has been made. Counsel for the Cook County Department of
Highways represented at oral argument that these facts were
unchanged.
Thus the documents relied on by plaintiffs show nothing
more than a possibility that federal funds might be applied for.
The affidavits establish that no federal funds have in fact been
applied for.
One case sustained a preliminary injunction against construc-
tion of a highway project for failure to comply with a federal
relocation statute, holding that the project for a part of the
granting relief, the district court found it unnecessary
to the of whether defendants also violated NEPA,
which was a La Raza Unida v. Volpe, 337
F 221, .D. Cal. 1971). The Court of Appeals did
A66
for purposes of that statute when it received location approval"
prior to any application for federal funds. La Raza Unida v.
Volpe, 488 F.2d 599 (9th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 417 US.
968 (1974). That case was not decided under NEPA, which
applies to proposed major federal actions and not to a federal-
aid secondary designation that took place along before NEPA
was adopted or to possible federal funding that is not proposed
at present. And, as the district court in River v. Richmond
Metropolitan Authority, supra, stated; “Notwithstanding the
fact that La Raza Unida declared a highway project to be fed-
eral early in the planning process, it most assuredly did not
hold that a project could be federal where no federal participa-
tion had ever taken place.” 359 F.Supp. at 634. Possible future
federal funding is all that the plaintiffs in the case at bar have
shown.
The Lake-Cook Road improvement appears from the sum-
mary judgment papers to be a state project on which no
federal action is proposed, and therefore, NEPA’s require-
ment of an environmental impact statement does not apply
to the project. See Citizens for Balanced Environment and
Transportation, Inc. v. Volpe, 503 F.2d 601 (2d Cir. 1974);
Civic Improvement Committee v. Volpe, 459 F.2d 957 (4th
Cir. 1972); cf. Bradford Township v. Illinois State Toll High-
way Authority, 463 F.2d 537, 540 (7th Cir. 1972), cert
denied, 409 U.S. 1047 (1972). ‘
Count IV: The Equal Protection Challenge
to the Zoning Ordinance
Plaintiffs allege in amended Count IV that the Village of
Northbrook and its trustees have deprived them of the equal
protection of the laws as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amend-
ment and seek a judgment declaring invalid Northbrook’s zon-
11. The district court defined location approval as the second
al tana way project, in which the route is specifically estab-
lished within a corridor which has previously been defined. (Jd. at
223-224.) Location approval cannot take place unless the state high-
ing approval
an injunction “barring future zoning approval until Northbrook
demonstrates that its residents have been subjected to similar
environmental assaults.” Jurisdiction is purportedly predicated
upon 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (federal question); 28 U.S.C. § 2201
(declaratory judgment remedy); and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (de-
privation of constitutional or federal statutory rights under
color of state law), and its jurisdictional correlative, 28 U.S.C.
§ 1343.
Plaintiffs allege in substance that, upon information and
belief, Northbrook and its trustees have “aggressively pro-
tected” its residential areas from intrusion by massive com-
mercial developments such as the proposed shopping center
complex; that their action in giving zoning approval to the
proposed shopping center complex will cause the eventual
subjection of plaintiffs to “vast increase in noise and air pol-
lution as well as aesthetic destruction of the quiet residential
character of their community;” and that by exposing plaintiffs
to these environmental hazards, while protecting Northbrook
residents from intrusion of similar developments, Northbrook
has discriminated against them in violation of the Fourteenth
Amendment. The amendment to the complaint, in which plain-
tiffs joined the trustees of the Village of Northbrook as addi-
them. The village and the trustees moved to dismiss Count
IV of the complaint for want of jurisdiction as to it under 42
U.S.C. § 1983 and for failure to state a claim for which relief
could be granted.
As the District Court correctly held (City of Highland Park
v. Train, supra, 374 F.Supp. at 773), there is no jurisdic-
tion under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 over the claim against the village.
City of Kenosha v. Bruno, 412 U.S. 507, 513 (1973). As-
or es Ne areal aes let ane neni name
way department requests it and until a corridor public i
held om the pd aww ged C.F.R. $8 790.9(e) (1), 790.2(a) (197 +
Nothing comparable to these procedures has taken place in the
A68
tion against the village on the claim based upon the Fourteenth
Amendment under 28 U.S.C. § 1331. The absence of any
specific request for relief against the trustees may have justified
dismissal as to them, but in any event the complaint, as
amended, states no claim on which relief could be granted
against either the trustees or the village.
A zoning ordinance is clothed with every presumption of
validity. City of Ann Arbor, Mich. v. Northwest Park Constr.
Corp., 280 F.2d 212, 223 (6th Cir. 1960). Derived from
the states’ police power, the legislative authority which grants
municipalities the power to adopt and enforce zoning ordi-
nances and regulations is not to be narrowly confined. Village
of Belle Terre v. Boraas, 416 U.S. 1, 5-8 (1974); cf. Berman
V. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 32-33 (1954). Unless it is based upon
a suspect classification or impinges upon a fundamental right
(see Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas, supra, 416 U.S. at 6,
7), which is not true in the case at bar, zoning legislation may
be held unconstitutional only if it is shown to bear no possible
relationship to the state’s interest in securing the health, safety,
morals, or general welfare of the public and is, therefore, mani-
festly unreasonable and arbitrary. E.g., Village of Euclid v.
Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 395 (1926); Gorieb v. Fox,
274 U.S. 603, 610 (1927); Aquino v. Trobiner, 298 F.2d
674, 677 (D.C. Cir. 1961). Thus the scope of judicial review
is limited «
It is well established that “[iJn the area of economics and
social welfare, a State does not violate the Equal Protection
Clause merely because the classifications made by its law are
imperfect. If the classification has some ‘reasonable basis,’ it
does not offend the Constitution simply because . . . ‘in practice
it results in some inequality.’” Dandridge v. Williams, 397
U.S. 471, 485 (1960): see Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas,
supra, 416 U.S. at 8; Sinclair Refining Co. v. City of Chicago,
178 F.2d 214, 217 (7th Cir. 1950). As the Supreme Court
observed in Village of Euclid vy. Ambler Realty Co., supra:
A69
“[L]aws may , . . find their justification in the fact that, in
some fields, the bad fades into the good by such insensible
degrees that the two are not capable of being readily dis-
tinguished and separated in terms of legislation.” (272 U.S. at
389.)
Inherent in all zoning legislation are statutory distinctions
which give rise to claims of disparity of treatment. Inevitably
areas zoned for nonresidential uses will touch areas zoned for
residential uses, and the burden of the zoning always falls most
heavily on the residents adjacent to the boundary. This is es-
sentially all that plaintiffs have alleged here, except that they
have framed their grievance in the rhetoric of equal protection.
Plaintiff residents of Highland Park and Glenbrook Country-
side allege no classification other than the distinction between
residents in close proximity to the proposed shopping center and
residents who live farther away. Such a classification, inherent
in all zoning, is not within the purview of the Fourteenth
Amendment. Cf. L’Hote v. City of New Orleans, 177 US.
587, 597 (1899). “Some must suffer by the establishment of
any territorial boundaries. . . » If these limits hurt the [appel-
lants], other limits would hurt others.” (1d.) So long as such
legislation applies equally to all persons similarly situated in
a given locale, there can be no violation of the Equal Protection
Clause. Cf. Caskey Baking Co. v. Virginia, 313 US. 117,
121 (1941); United States v. Holmes, 387 F.2d 781, 785 (7th
Cir. 1967), cert. denied, 391 U.S. 936 (1968).
Zoning is not rendered unconstitutional by the fact that
any direct benefit the plaintiffs may receive from it is less
than the possible burdens it may impose upon them. Plaintiffs
having failed in Count IV to state a claim upon which relief
can be granted, the District Court’s dismissal of that count is
affirmed.
The Petition for Review
On January 6, 1975, plaintiffs filed in this court a petition for
review, No. 75-1006, seeking review of the significant deteriora-
A70
tion regulations promulgated by the Administrator on December
5, 1974. That petition which states as petitioners’ sole grievance
the Administrator's failure to promulgate significant deterioration
regulations with respect to carbon monoxide and other auto-
mobile related pollutants was consolidated with No, 74-1271
on the representation by petitioners that the same substantive
issues were involved in the two cases, the court viewing the
petition for review as an attempt by petitioners to “safeguard
their jurisdictional grounds.” (Order of Feburary 11, 1975,
denying motion to reconsider consolidation. )
No brief has been submitted in support of the petition for
review. We therefore do not have the benefit of petitioners’
views as to the appropriateness of a petition for review to com-
pel the Administrator to act. We think, however, that the
function of a petition for review is to invoke a review for
correctness by the Court of Appeals of regulations adopted by
the Administrator and not to compel the Administrator to
act when he has failed to act. Petitioners, in their petition for
review, do not challenge the significant deterioration regulations
on particulate matter and sulfur dioxide which the Administrator
has promulgated. Their petition rather complains that the Ad-
ministrator “continues in his failure” to promulgate regulations
relating to carbon monoxide and other motor vehicle related
pollutants. The appropriate procedure for compelling the, Ad-
ministration to act is that provided in section 304(a), supra,
which expressly provides for an action in the district court
“against the Administrator when there is alleged a failure of
the Administrator to perform any act or duty under this Act
which is not discretionary with the Administrator.” Plaintiffs
recognized this when they brought their action under section
304(a), but they failed to give statutory notice that would
have made their action viable. The petition for review is dis-
missed,
AFFIRMED in No, 74-1271; Petition for Review DismMissEep
in No. 75-1006.
A7l
UNITED STATES DisTRICT CourRT,
N. D. Illinois, E.D.
March 15, 1974.
SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION MARCH 25, 1974.
Tue City oF HIGHLAND PARK, EBT AL.,
Plaintiffs,
VILLAGE OF DEERFIELD,
Additional-Plaintiff, 1-3-74,
vs.
RUSSELL E. TRAIN, BT AL.,
Defendants.
No. 73 C 3027.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Decker, District Judge.
In this multi-count action, plaintiffs assert that they have been
denied, or are in imminent danger of being denied, various fed-
eral Constitutional and statutory rights through the action and
inaction of various federal, county and private defendants. In
general, the primary impetus for this lawsuit is the alleged
violation by federal officials and agencies of their duties under
the Clean Air Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1857 et seq., and
the National Environmental Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4321
et seq., by failing to subject a particular highway expansion
project and an adjacent shopping center complex to the require-
ments of those statutes. Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive
A72
relief ordering the governmental defendants to take action to
meet their statutory obligations and prohibiting further con-
struction of the road expansion or shopping center in the interim.
Plaintiffs consist of the cities of Highland Park and Deerfield,
municipal corporations in the immediate area of the shopping
center site; the Tri-Suburban Defense Counsel, a non-profit Ili-
nois corporation, whose membership includes residents of High-
land Park, Deerfield and Northbrook interested in protecting
the physical and aesthetic environment of those cities; and vari-
ous residents of Highland Park and Glenbrook Countryside. The
individual plaintiffs live immediately north or west of the shop-
ping center construction site.
In December, 1973, a hearing was held on plaintiffs’ motion
for a preliminary injunction and on defendants’ motions to dis-
miss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, or, in the alternative,
for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.
The parties having exhaustively briefed the issues raised at
the hearing, the matter is presently before the court for a decision
of those motions.
1. Background to the Lawsuit
The facts culminating in this lawsuit, as gathered from the
papers on file, are as follows: Lake-Cook Road constitutes the
boundary line between Luke and Cook Counties. For most of
its length, the road consists of two lanes. Starting in 1967, the
Cook County Highway Department began to develop plans to
expand the road to a four-lane highway and also to construct a
four-land extension where no road presently exists. Althouyl: it
appears that, at that time, an expanded Lake-Cook Road was
deemed to be capable of handling projected traffic increases for
the next 20 years or more, plaintiffs claim that these estimates
did not foresee, nor take into account, the increment in average
daily traffic that would be caused by the construction of a large
shopping center complex on the Road.
A73
In January, 1973, the defendant developers' submitted a
proposed plan for the construction of a large shopping center on
Lake-Cook Road between Skokie Highway and Waukegan
Road.’ Because of the location of the proposed site in conjunc-
tion with the Tri-State Tollway, which blocks all north-south
through street access in the area except for Skokie Highway
and Waukegan Road, the only main thoroughfare providing
access to the shopping center will be Lake-Cook Road. Con-
sequently, plaintiffs estimate that 90% of the traffic generated
by the proposed shopping center will have to use Lake-Cook
Road.’
Plaintiffs claim that expected traffic growth plus the increase
in vehicle trips to be generated by the shopping center‘ will
soon overwhelm the Lake-Cook Road expansion and will create
especially acute traffic congestion at the intersections of Lake-
Cook Road with Skokie Highway and Waukegan Road.
These developments allegedly will subject plaintiffs to a sub-
stantial increase in “noise and discomfort in the use of their
homes and in the use of the streets in their community.” More
specifically, plaintiffs forecast that the increase in traffic will
raise the concentration of carbon monoxide in the ambient air
by more than 66% over existing levels.
1, The developers consist of Sears, Roebuck and Co., Nieman-
Marcus Co., Lord and Taylor Inc., Homart Development Co.,
Broadway-Hale, Inc., and Northbrook Associates.
2. Plaintiffs claim that the shopping center will occupy 1,000,000
square feet and will contain four department stores, 120 smaller
retail shops, facilities, and an auto repair center. The
parking lot will hold 5,000 cars.
3. This estimate is supported by a traffic impact study of the
proposed development. ec
4. It is estimated that 28,400 vehicle trips per day will be
attributable to the shopping center.
A74
ll. Counts I and Il
These counts comprise the heart of this lawsuit. Here plain-
tiffs allege that the Administrator of the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency (“EPA”) has failed to promulgate regulations in
conformity with a timeable set forth in the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1970 and proposes to grant projects which be-
gin construction prior to May 15, 1974, exemptions from that
statute’s regulations, also in violation of the statute.
A. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970°
The Clean Air Act was enacted, inter alia, “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. § 1857(b)(1). The
program established to control air pollution divides responsibility
for the task between the states and the federal government.
The Administrator of the EPA has exclusive responsibility for
establishing “national ambient air quality standards,”* while the
states have primary authority, subject to EPA review, for estab-
lishing “implementation plans” to achieve these standards. In
spite of the complexity and breadth of this undertaking, the
Act established an expedited schedule for EPA promulgation
of air quality standards, the submission of state implementation
plans, and the development of substitute federal programs to
replace deficient state plans.
Thus, within 30 days after the passage of the Act, the
Administrator was to publish proposed ambient air quality
standards for each pollutant for which “air quality criteria had
5. The Clean Air Act was originally enacted in 1963, 77 Stat.
392, and amended in relatively minor respects three times during
the following seven years. Its present form, however, derives almost
entirely from the amendments adopted in 1970,
6. These are standards designating the maximum tolerable con-
centration in the air of substances identifiable as pollutants. See
42 U.S.C, § 1857¢—4(a).
A75
been issued.” 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—4(a)(1)(A).’ After a maxi-
mum of 90 days for public comment upon these proposals, the
Administrator was required to issue final air quality standards.
42 U.S.C, § 1857c—4(a)(1)(B). Both of these deadlines were
met by the EPA.
Within nine months, after the promulgation of the national
ambient air standards, each state was to submit to the Adminis-
trator a plan which provided for the “implementation, mainte-
nance, and enforcement” of these standards. 42 U.S.C. § 1857—
5(a)(1). The Administrator was to review the state plans
within four months to assure that they satisfied the statutory
requirements, 42 U.S.C, § 1857c—5(a)(2). Each plan was
to provide for the attainment of the national primary standards
“as expeditiously as possible” but in no case later than three
years after the date of EPA approval of the plan. 42 U.S.C.
§ 1857c—5(a)(2)(A)(i). Attainment of national secondary
standards was to occur with a “reasonable time” to be specified
in the plan, 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—5(a)(2)(A) (ii). Further, each
plan was to include “emission limitations, schedules and time-
tables for compliance with such limitations, and such other
measures as may be necessary to insure attainment and mainte-
nance of such primary or secondary standard, including, but
not limited to, land-use and transportation controls.” 42 U.S.C.
§ 1857c—5(a)(2)(B). The Act also sets forth a number of
other specific conditions required before the approval of the
EPA was to be forthcoming. If the plan or any portion thereof
was determined not to satisfy the statutory conditions, the
Administrator was required to disapprove tne plan or portion.
In such a situation, he had six months from the date of submis-
sion or two months from the date of disapproval, to promulgate
7. The Administrator was to establish two sets of ambient
standards: (1) “primary standards,” the “attainment and main-
tenance of which . . . are requisite to protect the public health,”
42 U.S.C, § 1857c—4(b) (1); and (2) “secondary standards” “requi-
site to protect the public welfare from any known or anticipated
adverse effects.” 42 U.S.C. § 1857¢—4(b) (2). ”
A76
his own implementation plan, or portion, for the state involved.
42 U.S.C, § 1857e—5(c).
Prior to and during the period in which the state plans were
under review by the EPA, the Administrator repeatedly ex-
pressed doubts about his authority to require state plans to pro-
tect against “significant deterioration” of existing clean air
regions’ and was on record as stating that he would not de-
mand such provisions in state plans. See Sierra Club v. Ruckels-
haus, 344 F Supp. 253, 254 (D.C.D.C.), affd per curiam
(D.C.Cir, 1972), aff'd by an equally divided court sub nom.,
Fri v. Sierra Club, 412 U.S, 541, 93 S.Ct. 2770, 37 L.Ed.2d
140 (1973). The Sierra Club brought suit in the U.S. District
Court for the District of Columbia to enjoin the Administrator
from approving any state plans omitting provisions on sig-
nificant deterioration, claiming that such action would con-
stitute a failure to perform a non-discretionary duty in violation
of the Act. See 42 U.S.C. § 1857h—2(a). After examining the
stated purpose of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970, the
legislative history of the Act and its predecessor, and pertinent
administrative regulations, see 344 F.Supp. at 255-256, the
court held for the plaintiffs, concluding that:
“(T)he Clean Air Act of 1970 is based in important part on
a policy of non-degradation of existing clean air and
that . . . permitting the states to submit plans which allow
pollution levels of clean air to rise to the secondary stand-
ard level of pollution, is contrary to the legislative px policy of
the Act and is, therefore, invalid.” 344 F.Supp. at 256.
The Illinois plan was duly submitted on January 31, 1972,
and partial EPA approval was forthcoming on May 31, 1972,
within the four-month period prescribed by the statute. However,
Illinois and a number of other states were granted an extension
until February 15, 1973, to submit the transportation control
8. “Significant deterioration” is an environmental concept refer-
ring to situations where the level of pollution in a given area is lower
than the secondary air quality standard but is allowed to degrade
to the level of the standard.
A77
portions of their implementation plans. See Natural Resources
Defense Council v. E.P.A., 154 U.S.App.D.C. 384, 475 F.2d
968, 970 (1973) (hereinafter referred to as Natural Resources).
Suit was immediately instituted in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging these exten-
sions, inter alia. Natural Resources, supra. The court determined
that, although the Administrator had “acted in the best of faith
in attempting to comply with the difficult responsibilities im-
posed upon him by Congress,” 475 F.2d at 970, Le had failed
to conform to the strict time requirements of the Clean Air Act
in granting the extensions with respect to the transportation con-
trol aspects of the state plans. In addition, the court found in-
sufficient evidence in the record with respect to whether the
EPA had conducted a state-by-state determination on the ef-
ficacy of the state plans to provide for maintenance of the pri-
mary and secondary standards beyond May 31, 1975.° In order
“to remedy these violations of the Act,” the court established
its own time schedule under which the EPA was to review the
state pians as to their maintenance provisions and to disapprove
those which he determined did not contain sufficient measures.
Pursuant to this re-examination, the state plans of Illinois and
all other states were found to be deficient.
However, the states were granted a second opportunity to
develop adequate programs. In guidelines to the states to aid
them in developing these plans, the Administrator noted that
several mechanisms were available to mitigate the impact of
community growth on air quality maintenance. For example,
maintenance could be guaranteed by then-required provisions
to review the construction or modification of a stationary source
of air pollution where emissions from that source would result
in interference with maintenance. 40 C.F.R. § 51.18. See 39
9. The court also found that the Administrator had violated the
Act oath granting extensions to mid-1977 for attainment of the na-
tional primary ambient air standards without following the statutory
procedures. 42 U.S.C. § 1857c—S(e).
A78
F.R. 7270 (February 25, 1974). But the Administrator warned
such measures alone would not be adequate to ensure mainte-
nance. Accordingly, he advised that the stationary source review
procedures be expanded by the states to cover “complex” or
“indirect” sources of air pollution—“facilities [like the shopping
center in question here] which do not themselves emit pollu-
tants, but which attract increased motor vehicle activity and
thereby may cause violations of an implementation plan’s trans-
portation control strategy or may prevent or interfere with the
attainment of an ambient air quality standard.” 39 F.R. 7270
(February 25, 1974). Notwithstanding these suggestions the
states failed to include adequate complex source provisions
and the Administrator again was compelled to disapprove the
state plans. See 38 F.R. 6290 (March 8, 1973). At the time
of the institution of this suit, and pursuant to the time schedule
adopted by the court in Natural Resources, the EPA was in the
process of holding public hearings in 43 states to receive com-
ment on complex source regulations.*°
B. The Issues in Counts I and Il
In Count I, plaintiffs complain of the continuing failure of the
Administrator to promulgate federal implementation regulations
to correct the deficiencies of the Illinois plan within the time
period established by the Act. Since disapproval, rather than
approval, should have occurred on May 31, 1972, and since
the Act granted the Administrator two months thereafter to issue
substitute implementation plans, plaintiffs assert that the Admin-
istrator has been in violation of the Act since July 31, 1972.
Specifically, plaintiffs emphasize the failure of the Administrator
to issue regulations to prevent the significant deterioration of air
quality in areas, such as the proposed shopping center location,
with air cleaner than national standards or to prevent violations
10. On February 14, 1974, the Administrator issued final
regu-
lations concerning indirect sources. See 39 F.R. 7270 (February 25,
1974).
A79
of the standards by complex sources. Plaintiffs seek an order
requiring the EPA to promulgate regulations addressed to those
problems and halting further construction of the shopping center
until the plans therefor have been reviewed by the Administrator
under the foregoing regulations.
Count II asserts that the expansion of the Lake-Cook Road,
“as impacted by the traffic load” to be generated by the shop-
ping center complex, will cause significant degradation of air
quality in the neighborhood and will interfere with the mainte-
nance of air quality standards. Plaintiffs repeat their Count I
prayer for a mandatory injunction upon the Administrator to
issue the overdue regulations and, further, ask that the road
improvement be halted until such time as the regulations are
promulgated and the road project is subjected to federal re-
view thereunder.
In response, the defendants have submitted numerous chal-
lenges to the jurisdictional bases alleged in the complaint. Each
of these will be addressed in turn.
1. Jurisdiction Under the Clean Air
Act Amendments of 1970.
Initially, defendants argue that plaintiffs are in the wrong
court because the Act provides an exclusive forum in the Courts
of Appeals to review allegations of the type made in this com-
plaint. The section of the statute upon which defendants rely
provides in relevant part:
“A petition for review of the Administrator's action in
approving or promulgating any implementation plan under
section 1857c-5 . . . may be filed only in the United States
Court of Appeals for the appropriate circuit. Any such
petition shall be filed within 30 days from the date of
such promulgation of approval, or after such date if such
petition is based solely on grounds arising after such 30th
day.” 42 U.S.C. § 1857h-5(b) (1).
A80
Strong arguments are presented by both parties as to the
applicability of this provision to the situation at bar. Plaintiffs
eaptbarnineitped icarties s sra
in “approving or promulgating any implementation s
pean map do specifically alleges that the Administrator
disapproved the Dlinois plan under the guidelines of the court
in Natural Resources, and has not issued a substitute plan. On
the other hand, the EPA and the developers argue that the
suit falis within the purview of that section. In support thereof,
those defendants contend that the origin of this lawsuit can be
traced to the Administrator's approval of the Illinois plan on
May 31, 1972, and that any regulation enacted will become part
of the state plan.™
Courts apparently have differed in the interpretation to be
given this statutory provision. Compare Utah Int'l, Inc. v.
E.P.A., 478 F.2d 126, 127 (10th Cir. 1973); Anaconda Co. v.
Ruckelshaus, 482 F.2d 1301, 1305 (10th Cir. 1973), 482
F.2d 1301, 1305 (10th Cir. 1973), with Pinkney v. Ohio Env.
Prot. Ag., 375 F.Supp. 305 (N.D.Ohio, 1974). Pinkney is the
only case on point. In that case, plaintiffs also challenged the
action of the Administrator in delaying the effective date of
federal regulations with respect to indirect sources. The court
deemed this aspect of the suit to constitute a petition for review
of administrative action in promulgating regulations and, thus,
within the exclusive jurisdiction of the court of appeals.”
11. Defendants claim that zy also could have t
review of EPA approval of the Illinois transportation control
on December 5, 1973.
12. In Utah Int'l, Inc. v. E.P.A., supra, the court interpreted
the clause aide
“to provide for judicial review of final administrative action.
Hence, an order approving a state plan is subject to review, for
by approving a state plan, the E.P.A. thereby places the state
plan into effect. However, an order disapproving a state plan
is not subject to review, because by the mere act of dis-
approval no plan is placed into effect and the administrative
process is simply reactivated.” 478 F.2d at 127.
A81
To the extent that judicial interpretations of 42 U.S.C.
§ 1857h—5(b)(1) are irreconcilable, this court need not
choose among them, for, even assuming that this action is
cognizable in this court, plaintiffs are barred from this forum
for failing to observe the Act’s procedural requisites for filing
suits in district court.
The Act provides for district court jurisdiction of civil suits
challenging certain actions of the Administrator. The relevant
language provides:
“[AJny person may commence a civil action on his own
behalf—
oe e s > .
(2) against the Administrator where there is alleged a
failure of the Administrator to perform any act or duty . ae
which is not discretionary with the Administrator.” 42
U.S.C. § 1857h—2(a).
However, certain limitations are imposed upon this right to
sue:
“No action may be commenced—
e s 2 . *
(2) under [the foregoing provision] prior to 60 days after
the plaintiff has given notice of such action to the Admin-
istrator. . . .” 42 U.S.C. § 1857h—2(b).¥
Plaintiffs acknowledge that this action was instituted without
according 60 days notice to the Administrator. However, in an
apparent attempt to overcome this omission, plaintiffs have
stated that they would not rely upon the citizen suit provision
of 42 U.S.C. § 1857h—2 until the expiration of 60 days from
the filing of the complaint. This strategy is based upon the
decision in Riverside v. Ruckelshaus, 4 E.R.C. 1728 (C.D.Cal.
1972). The court there held that personal service upon the
Administrator together with a lapse of 60 days between the
13. The statute granted the Administrator authority to specify
the manner in which the notice is to be given. The regulations
scribing the procedures for giving notice are set forth at 36 FR.
23386-87 (December 9, 1971).
A82
date of filing and the date of completion of a hearing on plain-
tiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction amounted to sufficient
constructive compliance with the notice provision so as to give
the court jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 1857h -2.
Such an approach to the notice provision constitutes, in effect,
judicial amendment in abrogation of explicit, unconditional
statutory language and this court respectively declines so to
ignore or to modify the notice requirement. _
Not only is strict adherence mandated by the statute,
it is supported by compelling practical and policy considera-
tions, especially in cases of a complex nature such as the one
before the court. Congress was aware of the 60 days granted
the United States, or an officer or employee thereof, to answer
complaints in civil suits under Rule 12(a), F.R.C.P., when it
incorporated the notice provision into the Clean Air Act. Had
the drafters of the Act considered the Rule 12 period alone
to be sufficient, they would not also have required notice prior
to commencement of the suit. During the 60-day period, many
questions that might otherwise be presented to the court could
be subject to negotiated settlement; this possibility for compro-
mise is at least reduced by forcing the Administrator into court
with abbreviated notice. Further, without the grace period, the
EPA would be accorded only a few days, as here, where plain-
tiffs sought an immediate restraining order, to assess, and pre-
pare a response to, a difficult, multi-count suit, seeking substan-
tially more than mere ministerial action. In addition, complex
matters might necessitate deploying attorneys from Washing-
ton. And, of course, institution of suit interrupts the on-going
process of regulation development and other substantive EPA
concerns. In light of these considerations, scrupulous observance
of the 60-day notice provision must be required. Thus, plain-
tiffs’ failure to meet the notice requirement is fatal to jurisdic-
tion under 42 U.S.C. §1857h—2. Accord: Pinkney v. Ohio
Env. Prot. Ag., supra.
A83
2. Other Jurisdictional Bases.
The foregoing discussion has precluded the explicit judicial
review provisions of the Clean Air Act as bases for jurisdiction
in this court. However, an apparent saving clause provides:
“Nothing in this section [referring to 42 U.S.C. § 1857h-2]
shall restrict any right which any person may have under
any statute or common law . . . to seek any other relief
(including relief against the Administrator or a State
agency).” 42 U.S.C. § 1857h-2(e).
In reliance upon that clause, plaintiffs maintain that jurisdic-
tion exists under the following melange of statutes: (1) section
10 of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706;
(2) the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201, 2202;
(3) the general federal question jurisdictional statute, 28
U.S.C. § 1331; and (4) 28 U.S.C. § 1361.
(a) The Administrative Procedure Act.
A quick reading of section 10 of the Administrative Pro-
cedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. §§ 701-706, would indicate
that those provisions constitute a sufficient jurisdictional base
for this action. Under the APA, “[a] person suffering legal
wrong because of agency action, or adversely affected or ag-
grieved by agency action . . . is entitled to judicial review there-
of.” 5 U.S.C. § 702. The Act further provides that “[ajgency
action made reviewable by statute and final agency action for
which there is no other adequate remedy in a court are subject
to judicial review.” 5 U.S.C. § 704. “The form of proceeding
for judicial review” is controlled by “special statutory review
proceeding relevant to the subject matter in a court specified”
by the particular statute; however, in the “absence or inadequacy”
of that review, “any applicable form of legal action” may be
brought “in a court of competent jurisdiction.” 5 U.S.C. § 703."
_ 14. The APA recites actions for declaratory judgment, injunc-
tion, and habeas corpus as examples of forms of legal actions.
A84
The preceding language clearly implies that, where a
statute has established a review proceeding adequate to the
subject matter, that proceeding is to control. In fact, courts have
established a rule that where Congress has provided adequate
procedures for judicial review of administrative action, that pro-
cedure must be followed. Utah Int'l, Inc. v. E. P. A., supra
478 F.2d at 128; Frito-Lay, Inc. v. F. T. C., 380 F.2d 8 (Sth
Cir. 1967); United States v. Southern Ry. Co., 364 F.2d 86
(Sth Cir. 1966), cert. denied, 386 U.S. 1031, 87 S.Ct. 1479,
18 L.Ed.2d 592 (1967). See Pinkney v. Ohio Env. Prot. Ag.,
supra, Otherwise stated,
“{iJf Congress specifically designates a forum for judicial
review of administrative action, such a forum is exclusive,
and this result does not depend on the use of the word
‘exclusive’ in the statute providing for a forum for judicial
review.” Getty Oil Co. v. Ruckelshaus, 467 F.2d 349,
356 (3d Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S, 1125, 93 S.Ct.
937, 35 L.Ed.2d 256 (1973).
See Hegedorn v. Union Carbide Corp., 363 F.Supp. 1061,
1067 (N.D.W.Va. 1973).
As discussed in section //.B.]., supra, the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1970 contain their own jurisdictional and judi-
cial review provisions. The Administrator may be brought into
district court when he is alleged to have failed to perform a
non-discretionary duty, 42 U.S.C. § 1857h—2(a)(2); and,
when the Administrator is charged with improperly approving
or promulgating a state plan, a petition to review may be filed
in the appropriate Court of Appeals. 42 U.S.C. § 1857h—5(b).
These provisions would appear to cover the entire gamut of
situations where it would be necessary to challenge the Admin-
istrator.
In the light of the rigorous manner in which the Courts
of Appeals have reviewed the Administrator’s actions in promul-
gating or approving state plans, it cannot be said that those
review provisions are inadequate. See, ¢. g., Natural Resources
A85
Defense Council v. E. P. A., 489 F.2d 390 (Sth Cir, 1974).
Assuming that this lawsuit is one properly to be presented to a
district court, plaintiffs have iorfeited their statutory right to
be in this forum by neglecting to observe the 60-day notice
requirement. See section //.B./., supra. Any “absence or inade-
quacy” of the citizen suit provision is solely attributable to the
plaintiffs and cannot be cured by refuge in the APA. See Pink-
ney v. Ohio Env. Prot. Ag., supra.
Accordingly, section 10 of the APA does not constitute an
independent jurisdictional basis for this lawsuit.
(b) The Declaratory Judgment Act.
Under the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201,
2202, any federal court may declare the rights and legal
relationships of parties who have presented an actual case
or controversy within the court’s jurisdiction. However, it is
well-settled that this statute is not jurisdictional; its operation is
procedural only. Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Haworth, 300 U.S.
227, 240, 57 S.Ct. 461, 81 L.Ed. 617 (1937). See Skelly Oil
Co. v. Phillips Pet. Co., 339 U.S. 667, 671, 70 S.Ct. 876, 879,
94 L.Ed. 1194 (1950). The Declaratory Judgment Act “en-
larged the range of remedies available in the federal courts but
did not extend their jurisdiction.” Skelly Oil Co. v. Phillips Pet.
Co., supra.
Thus, unless plaintiffs’ action is otherwise within the
competence of this court, the Declaratory Judgment Act is of
no help in establishing jurisdiction. See Getty Oil Co. v. Ruckels-
haus, supra 467 F.2d at 356; Zimmerman v. United States
Gov't., 422 F.2d 326, 331 n. 7 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 399
U.S. 911, 90 S.Ct. 2200, 26 L.Ed.21 565, reh. denied, 400
U.S. 855, 91 S.Ct. 26, 27 L.Ed.2d 93 (1970); Hagedorn v.
Union Carbide Corp., supra 363 F.Supp. at 1068; Thompson
v. Groshens, 342 F.Supp. 516, 520 n. 11 (E.D.Pa.1972);
Mattingly v. Elias, 325 F.Supp. 1374, 1375 n.3 (E.D.Pa.1971),
rev'd on other grounds, 482 F.2d 526 (3d Cir. 1973).
A86
(c) Federal Question.
The general federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, con-
fers upon district courts original jurisdiction of suits arising
under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States.
The classic case of Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 66 S.Ct. 773,
90 L.Ed. 939 (1946), set forth the analysis to be employed by
the courts in determining whether allegations were sufficient
to establish subject matter jurisdiction under that statute:
“(Where the complaint, as here, is so drawn as to seek
recovery directly under the . . . laws of the United States,
the federal court . . . must entertain the suit... . The
reason for this is that the court must assume jurisdiction
to decide whether the allegations state a cause of action on
which the court can grant relief... .
“Jurisdiction . . . is not defeated . . . by the possibility
that the averments might fail to state a cause of action on
which [plaintiffs] could actually recover, For it is well
settled that the failure to state a proper cause of action
calls for a judgment on the merits and not for a dismissal
for want of jurisdiction. Whether the complaint states a
cause of action on which relief could be granted is a ques-
tion of law and just as issues of fact it must be decided
after and not before the court has assumed jurisdiction over
the controversy. If the court does later exercise its jurisdic-
tion to determine that the allegations . . . do not state a
ground for relief, then dismissal of the case would be on
the merits, not for want of jurisdiction.” Id. at 681-682,
66 S.Ct. at 776.
Plaintiffs’ allegations that the Administrator has breached
a statutory duty owed to them under the Clean Air Act Amend-
ments (i. e., that he has failed to meet the statutory timetable
and failed to promulgate regulations which would prevent signifi-
cant degradation of air quality and prevent violations of air
quality standards by indirect sources) clearly bring the com-
plaint within the purview of the general federal question statute
and require an examination of the Clean Air Act to determine
A87
whether the claims are we i-founded.’® See Wheeldin v. Wheeler,
373 U.S, 647, 649, 83 S.Ct. 1441, 10 L.Ed.2d 605 (1964);
Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, 516, 89 S.Ct. 1944, 23
L.Ed.2d 491 (1969); Gautreaux v. Romney, 448 F.2d 731,
734-735 (7th Cir. 1971).
As previously noted, the court in Natural Resources, set up a
timetable to remedy both the Administrator’s failure to observe
the strict time requirements of the Act and to review the state
plans for adequate maintenance provisions. For all practical
purposes, the statutory timetable has been replaced by that of the
court, at least with respect to Illinois and the other states in-
volved. To refer solely to the original statutory time schedule at
this late date to determine the Administrator’s compliance with
his obligations under the Act is meaningless, for once that time-
table was disregarded, and the time periods specified therein had
elapsed, neither the EPA nor the states could retrieve it.
The timeliness of the Administrator’s performance must now
be judged against the court’s schedule, It should be noted that
the time periods allowed the Administrator by the court to ac-
complish his tasks substantially reflect the comparable periods
set forth in the Act. At the time this action was instituted, the
Administrator was under a duty to promulgate regulations by
December 15, 1973. An extension to February 15, 1974, was
subsequently obtained. Thus, as of the date of suit, the Admin-
istrator was not in breach of his responsibilities under the court
mandate. Moreover, the time schedule created by the court was
entirely consistent with, indeed, more stringent than, that origi-
nally set up in the statute. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1857c-5(c), the
Administrator is accorded six months from “the date required
for [state] submission of [a] plan (or revision thereof)” to pro-
15. Although the Court in Bell v. Hood also noted that a suit
could be dismissed on jurisdictional grounds where the federal claim
is “immaterial and made solely for the e of obtaining juris-
diction or where such a claim is wholly insubstantial anc frivolous,”
327 U.S. at 682-683, 66 S.Ct. at 776, these exceptions to the general
rule do not apply here.
A88
mulgate an implementation program for those states whose
plans do not meet the statutory criteria. The initial court order
required submission of state plans by April 15, 1973; this date
was subsequently extended to August 15, 1973. Under 42 U.S.C.
§ 1857c-5(c), therefore, the EPA had until February 15, 1974,
to promulgate implementation plans. Thus, even under the
statute, the Administrator was not delinquent, the February date
being six months from “the date required for submission of
[state] plan[s).”
This conclusion is supported by the decision of the court in
Plan for Arcadia, Inc, v. Anita Associates, Civ.No.73-2480-
JWC (C.D.Cal., December 12, 1973), a lawsuit, remarkably
similar to the instant case. There. individual and corporate
plaintiffs, whose environmental interests were similar to those
of the plaintiffs here, brought suit to enjoin further construc-
tion of a shopping center and to compel the Administrator to
formulate an implementation plan for California dealing with
complex sources, The court noted that under the “new time-
table” established by the court in Natural Resources, the time
for promulgation of the requested substitute regulations had
not yet elapsed. Accordingly, the action was deemed to be
premature and was dismissed for failure to state a claim.
That decision i
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