Reserve Mining Co. v. Environmental Protection Agency

Rule of Law:

When an industrial discharge poses a potential but scientifically uncertain risk to public health, a court may issue an injunction requiring abatement of the pollution. However, if the danger is not imminent and the defendant is a major employer, the remedy must balance the potential health risks against the certain economic consequences and provide a reasonable time for compliance rather than ordering an immediate shutdown.

Facts:

• In 1947, Reserve Mining Company (Reserve) received a permit from the State of Minnesota to discharge taconite tailings (industrial waste) into Lake Superior.
• Beginning in 1955, Reserve's plant in Silver Bay, Minnesota, began discharging approximately 67,000 tons of tailings into the lake daily.
• The taconite ore processed by Reserve contains an asbestiform mineral, cummingtonite-grunerite, which results in the discharge of fibers substantially identical to carcinogenic amosite asbestos into both the air of Silver Bay and the water of Lake Superior.
• These asbestos-like fibers were found in the municipal water supplies of Duluth and other communities on the North Shore of Lake Superior.
• While occupational inhalation of asbestos was known to cause cancer, the health risk from ingesting such fibers or inhaling them at lower, non-occupational concentrations was scientifically unproven and uncertain at the time of the lawsuit.
• Reserve's facility employed approximately 3,000 workers and was central to the economy of northeastern Minnesota.

Procedural Posture:

• The United States, joined by the States of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and several environmental groups, sued Reserve Mining Company in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
• The plaintiffs sought an injunction to stop Reserve's discharge of taconite tailings into the air and Lake Superior, alleging violations of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the Refuse Act, and state nuisance laws.
• After a 139-day trial, the district court found that the discharges 'substantially endanger' public health and granted an injunction ordering Reserve to immediately cease its discharges, which would effectively close the plant.
• Reserve Mining Company appealed the district court's injunction order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
• The Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay of the injunction, allowing the plant to continue operating pending a full review of the appeal on its merits.