Whether the EPA's designation of a permanent dredge spoil disposal site was consistent with the Town of Southold's enforceable coastal management policies

QUESTIONS PRESENTED FOR REVIEW The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) designated a permanent dredge spoil disposal site at the edge of the Town of Southold’s border, known as the Eastern Long Island Sound Disposal Site (“ELDS”), where the coastline most effected by the plumes of disposed material from disposal operations will be one of the Town’s most sensitive and highlyprotected habitats. The questions presented are: L. Whether the EPA’s designation of a permanent dredge spoil disposal site that flows into one or more protect habitats in the Town of Southold was “consistent to the maximum extent practicable with” the Town of Southold’s “enforceable policies” that are part of New York’s “approved State management programs” under the Coastal Zone Management Act (“CZMA”), 16 U.S.C. § 1456(c)(1)(A). Il. Whether, and to what extent, in judicial review as to the EPA’s compliance with its consistency obligation under the CZMA, 16 U.S.C. § 1456(c)(1)(b) via the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. § 701, the EPA’s determination as to its own compliance, interpretation of the scope of its own authority, and interpretation of what its obligations under the Town’s enforceable policies should consist of, were entitled to deference, and whether those issues present questions of law to be determined “in accordance with the law,” or factual ii findings subject to the more deferential “arbitrary and capricious” standard. ZI. Whether the burden was on the Town to prove inconsistency as part of the notice and comment process, or if the EPA had an affirmative obligation to be consistent with the Town’s_ federally-approved coastal management policies to the maximum extent practicable pursuant to the CZMA; IV. Whether the EPA satisfied the procedural safeguards under the National Environmental Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4332, and more specifically under the Town’s federally-approved coastal management policies, and developed a sufficient basis for its environmental analysis, where, rather than specifically considering the Town’s coastal and marine habitats, the EPA limited its geographic inquiry to the immediate disposal site just beyond the Town’s borders, and otherwise deferring to the general sediment suitability criteria that would be used for future case-by-case permit applications.