Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/17-1498_8mjp.pdf
Page Number: 7

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

tially  responsible  party  may  undertake  any  remedial  ac-
tion”  at  the  site  without  EPA  approval.    42  U. S. C. 
§9622(e)(6).

The Act prescribes extensive public consultation while a 
cleanup plan is being developed.  It requires an opportunity
for public notice and comment on proposed cleanup plans. 
§§9613(k),  9617. 
It  requires  “substantial  and  mean-
ingful  involvement  by  each  State  in  initiation,  develop-
ment,  and  selection”  of  cleanup  actions  in  that  State. 
§9621(f )(1).    And,  in  most  instances,  it  requires  that 
remedial action comply with “legally applicable or relevant
and appropriate” requirements of state environmental law.
§9621(d)(2)(A).

But once a plan is selected, the time for debate ends and
the time for action begins.  To insulate cleanup plans from
collateral attack, §113(b) of the Act provides federal district 
courts with “exclusive original jurisdiction over all contro-
versies arising under” the Act, and §113(h) then strips such
courts of jurisdiction “to review any challenges to removal 
or  remedial  action,”  except  in  five  limited  circumstances.
§§9613(b), (h). 

B 
Between  1884  and  1902,  the  Anaconda  Copper  Mining 
Company built three copper smelters 26 miles west of the 
mining  town  of  Butte,  Montana.
  The  largest  one,  the 
Washoe  Smelter,  featured  a  585-foot  smoke  stack,  taller 
than the Washington Monument.  The structure still towers 
over the area today, as part of the Anaconda Smoke Stack 
State  Park.    Together,  the  three  smelters  refined  tens  of 
millions of pounds of copper ore mined in Butte, the “Rich-
est Hill on Earth,” to feed burgeoning demand for telephone 
wires and power lines.  M. Malone, The Battle for Butte 34 
(1981).  “It was hot.  It was dirty.  It was dangerous.  But it 
was a job for thousands.”  Dunlap, A Dangerous Job That 
Gave Life to a Town: A Look Back at the Anaconda Smelter,