Dilution Requirement Upheld

Laidlaw Environmental Services Inc. sought to build a large facility to treat liquid hazardous wastes in Laurinburg, N.C. The facility was designed to discharge up to 500,000 gpd of wastewater through a local publicly owned treatment works that discharges its wastewater into the Lumber River 30 miles upstream from the drinking water intake of Lumberton, N.C. This prompted the state legislature to enact a law requiring a thousandfold dilution of discharges into surface waters above public drinking water intakes. At Laidlaw's request the USEPA commenced withdrawal proceedings, asserting the dilution requirement was arbitrary. However, an administrative law judge ruled that withdrawal of approval was not warranted. The regional USEPA administrator adopted most of the judge's conclusions. The parties appealed this determination to the courts, which affirmed the original decision.