A group of waste industry trade associations and waste management and recycling companies is challenging the EPA’s recently finalized Clean Air Act rule that revises Emission Guidelines for existing municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. The National Waste & Recycling Association is among those that petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review the agency’s action, which would set a lower emission threshold at which owners and operations of MSW landfills must install a landfill gas collection and control system (GCCS).  The petition does not cover the separate, contemporaneously published rule that revised the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for new and modified MSW landfills, which became effective on October 28, 2016.

The substantive basis for the challenge to the rule is not laid out in the initial petition.  Some of the arguments petitioners are likely to make, however, can be anticipated from comments submitted to EPA during the rulemaking process.   The National Waste & Recycling Association and Solid Waste Management of North America, another petitioner, criticized a draft of the rule for proposing a GCCS installation trigger of emissions of 34 Megagrams per year (Mg/yr) of non-methane organic compounds (NMOC), rather than the previously contemplated 40 Mg/yr.  They claimed that EPA’s own calculations show that it will achieve no overall reduction in emissions of NMOC and only a marginal drop for methane.  Petitioners are also likely to take issue with EPA’s decision to maintain an operational standard for wellhead temperature, which it had considered removing in a prior proposed rule (80 FR 52100).

We will be tracking this litigation as it develops and providing updates on this blog.