113412P.pdf   03/25/2013  Iowa League of Cities  v.  EPA
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  11-3412
   Petition for Review of an Order of the Environmental Protection Administration   
   [PUBLISHED] [Gruender, Author, with Beam and Smith, Circuit Judges]
   Petition for Review - Order of the EPA. Court finds it has jurisdiction
   over a petition for review seeking direct appellate review of two letters
   sent by the EPA to Senator Charles Grassley with respect to bacteria
   mixing zones and blending in wastewater treatment facilities as the
   EPA's letters constituted binding promulgations and effluent limitations
   under Section 509(b)(1)(E) of the Clean Water Act; the matter was ripe
   for judicial review because the dispute was not abstract and presented an
   actual hardship to the petitioners; petitioners had Article III standing to
   bring the claim; proper standard for review for these challenges to agency
   procedural compliance under Sec. 706(2)(D) of the Administrative
   Procedures Act was de novo review; the EPA violated the APA when it
   bypassed notice and comment procedures and announced new rules
   banning bacteria mixing zones in all waters designated for primary
   contact recreation, and the rule is vacated; similarly, the EPA violated the
   APA when it announced a new legislative rule with respect to blending
   peak wet water flows, and that rule is also vacated; EPA's new mixing
   zone rule is not obviously precluded by the plain meaning of any
   applicable Clean Water Act regulations and should the EPA wish to
   implement the rule, it may seek to do so using the appropriate procedures;
   however, the blending rule clearly exceeds the EPA's statutory authority
   and insofar as the rule imposes secondary treatment regulations on flows
   within facilities it must be vacated as exceeding the agency's statutory
   authority; petitioners' request for an award of litigation costs under Clean
   Water Act Sec. 509(b)(3) is denied.