United States v. Marine Shale Processors
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
81 F.3d 1361 (1996)
- Written by Tammy Boggs, JD
Facts
For decades, Southern Wood Piedmont Company (SWP) treated wood with chemical preservatives, leaving behind acres of contaminated soil. In 1985, SWP closed its facilities. SWP sought to avoid environmental regulation by recycling its contaminated soil into a product that would be covered by a regulatory exemption. The exemption, known as the product rule, was promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). SWP contracted with Martin Shale Processors (MSP) (defendant) to process SWP’s contaminated soil into a product. Using a thermal-treatment process, MSP purported to be a legitimate recycler of hazardous waste. The United States (plaintiff) initiated an action, alleging that MSP’s product, supposedly reclaiming SWP’s hazardous waste, did not qualify for a recycling exemption. The district court entered a judgment declaring that material produced by MSP from SWP’s material was exempt from regulation, despite a jury’s inability to resolve several factual questions related to the legitimacy of MSP’s recycling process. The United States appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Higginbotham, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 820,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
