On July 17, 2014 Chief Judge John Preston Bailey of the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia issued Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law finding Mountain State Carbon liable for 27 particulate emission violations, and 908 hydrogen sulfide exceedances under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The Court dismissed all of the RCRA counts.
The Court ordered Mountain State Carbon to install and utilize an automated system that tracks the charging of the coke ovens with COMs data to identify ovens that are causing opacity violations. The Court further ordered EPA and Mountain State Carbon to retain (and separately pay for) the coke oven experts each side used at trial to inspect the coke ovens and prepare a report to the Court indicating which ovens, if any should be replaced or repaired. This report is due October 15, 2014.
Despite awarding the United States over $2.4 million for the Clean Air Act violations, the Court several times took unwarranted swipes at EPA witnesses, finding them to be mistaken or not credible.
The Court also ruled against EPA on several areas of law, on which there is likely a legitimate basis for appeal: 1) The Court's interpretation of CAA Method 9; 2) the CAA credible evidence rule, 3) the calculation for the Clean Air Act penalty wherein the Court elected to use the stipulated penalty amount from a still open Consent Decree as the basis for the penalty, 4) the RCRA legitimate recyling doctrine. The United