Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/17-1498_8mjp.pdf
Page Number: 37

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ATLANTIC RICHFIELD CO. v. CHRISTIAN 

Opinion of GORSUCH, J. 

The federal government has tried to help in its own way.
In  1983,  the  government  designated  the  300-square-mile
area  surrounding  the  smelter  a  Superfund  site  under  the
Comprehensive  Environmental  Response,  Compensation, 
and  Liability  Act  of  1980  (CERCLA),  94  Stat.  2767,  as
amended, 42  U. S. C. §9601 et seq.  After years of study and 
negotiation,  the  government  ordered  Atlantic  Richfield  to 
remove up to 18 inches of soil in residential yards with ar-
senic  levels  exceeding  250  parts  per  million  (ppm).    App.
94–95.  For so-called “pasture land”—that is, nearly every-
thing  else—the  government  set  the  threshold  for  soil  re-
moval at 1,000 ppm.  Brief for Respondents 8.  By way of
reference, even 100 ppm is sometimes considered too toxic
for  local  landfills,  and  the  federal  government  itself  has 
elsewhere set a threshold of 25 ppm.  Ibid.  Some States set 
residential cleanup levels as low as 0.04 ppm.  Ibid. 

The cleanup work that followed left much to be desired. 
By 2016, Atlantic Richfield claimed that it had virtually fin-
ished work on the landowners’ properties.  Yet, only 24 of 
their 77 properties had been remediated, and only about 5
percent of the total acreage had been touched.  Id., at 9.  Soil 
near Tammy Peters’s daycare playground, for example, still 
shows  an  arsenic  level  of  292  ppm.  But  because  the 
“weighted average” for her yard is below 250 ppm, Atlantic
Richfield  performed  no  cleanup  of  the  playground  at  all. 
Id., at 10. 

So the landowners here proceeded as landowners histori-
cally have:  They sought remedies for the pollution on their
lands in state court under state law.  Their choice can come 
as no surprise.  The federal government enjoys no general
power to regulate private lands; it may intervene only con-
sistent with the Commerce Clause or some other constitu-
tionally  enumerated  power.    Nor  does  the  federal  govern-
ment always intervene as fully as it might even when it can.
Meanwhile, the regulation of real property and the protec-