Opinion ID: 688768
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Inactive Waste Pits and RCRA Compliance

Text: 24 Although MESS's complaint sought various forms of injunctive relief, MESS now seeks primarily to compel McClellan's compliance with RCRA's individual reporting and permitting requirements, in addition to the Interagency Agreement's comprehensive requirements. 7 7] MESS argues that, in seeking such relief, it does not challenge the CERCLA cleanup plan. 25 We agree with McClellan, however, that such relief would constitute the kind of interference with the cleanup plan that Congress sought to avoid or delay by the enactment of Section 113(h). The Interagency Agreement now integrates RCRA obligations into its own reporting requirements. The parties to the Agreement deemed those reporting requirements to be sufficient; MESS clearly wants more. The additional reporting requirements that MESS would have us impose would second-guess the parties' determination and thus interfere with the remedial actions selected under CERCLA Section 104. 26 To an even greater degree, an injunction or declaration requiring McClellan to comply with RCRA permitting requirements would also interfere with the CERCLA cleanup. As McClellan points out, the entire purpose of a permit requirement is to allow the regulating agency to impose requirements as a condition of the permit. The injection of new requirements for dealing with the inactive sites that are now subject to the CERCLA cleanup (or McClellan's defense against imposition of such requirements) would clearly interfere with the cleanup. 27 It is true, as MESS argues, that every action that increases the cost of a cleanup or diverts resources or personnel from it does not thereby become a challenge to the cleanup. The enforcement of minimum wage requirements, for example, might increase the cost of a cleanup and even divert personnel from cleanup duties without becoming a challenge to the cleanup. MESS's lawsuit, however, is far more directly related to the goals of the cleanup itself than is the hypothetical minimum wage action. MESS, for all practical purposes, seeks to improve on the CERCLA cleanup as embodied in the Interagency Agreement. Its action qualifies as a challenge to the cleanup. 28