## Facts

- EPA designated parts of Maricopa and Pima Counties, Arizona as nonattainment areas for carbon monoxide.
- Arizona submitted revised state implementation plans (SIPs) for those counties in 1979; EPA approved them in 1983, but the areas did not attain the carbon monoxide NAAQS by the Clean Air Act (CAA) deadline of December 31, 1982.
- Arizona later submitted SIP revisions aimed at attaining by a potential 1987 extension; EPA rejected them, and the Ninth Circuit upheld the rejection in prior litigation.
- Residents obtained a district court order requiring EPA to promulgate federal implementation plans (FIPs) for the counties by August 10, 1988 unless Arizona submitted adequate SIPs before that date.
- Shortly before the deadline, Arizona submitted new SIP revisions.
- EPA approved the new SIPs based on whether they would attain the NAAQS within three years of EPA’s approval (by August 10, 1991), rather than evaluating compliance with the CAA’s 1982 deadline or a valid 1987 extension and the requirement for all reasonably available control measures.

## Issues

1. Whether EPA had statutory authority under the CAA to approve Arizona’s SIPs using a three-year-from-approval attainment period instead of the Act’s attainment deadlines and nonattainment requirements.
2. Whether EPA’s approvals were arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law under the applicable APA standard for review of final EPA action.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit granted the petition for review.
- The court held EPA’s approvals of the Maricopa and Pima County SIPs were arbitrary and capricious and contrary to the CAA.
- The court vacated EPA’s SIP approvals.
- The court ordered EPA to promulgate FIPs for the counties within six months, unless lawful SIPs consistent with the court’s opinion were in place.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory attainment deadlines in the CAA for nonattainment areas are binding; EPA may not effectively reset them through an administratively created three-year-from-approval attainment timeframe absent statutory authorization.
- For nonattainment areas, SIPs must provide for implementation of all reasonably available control measures and attainment as expeditiously as practicable, consistent with the Act’s deadlines and limited extension provisions.
- An EPA approval is arbitrary and capricious when it applies criteria not authorized by Congress or fails to apply the statutory requirements governing SIP adequacy.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit concluded that EPA unlawfully approved Arizona’s carbon monoxide SIPs by substituting an unauthorized post-approval attainment period for the CAA’s nonattainment deadlines and requirements, vacated the approvals, and directed EPA to issue federal plans on an expedited schedule.


Delaney v. Env’t Prot. Agency, 898 F.2d 687 (9th Cir. 1990)