Steel Company, Aka Chicago Steel and Pickling Company v. Citizens for a Better Environment (523 U.S. 83)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 4, 1998 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 523 U.S. 83 · 118 S. Ct. 1003
- Decided
- March 4, 1998
- Term
- October Term 1997
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a private enforcement action under the citizen-suit provision of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA), 100 Stat. 1755, 42 U. S. C. § 11046(a)(1). The case presents the merits question, answered in the affirmative by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, whether EPCRA authorizes suits for purely past violations. It also presents the jurisdictional question whether respondent, plaintiff below, has standing to bring this action. I Respondent, an association of individuals interested m environmental protection, sued petitioner, a small manufacturing company in Chicago, for past violations of EPCRA. EPCRA establishes a framework of state, regional, and local agencies designed to inform the public about the presence of hazardous and toxic chemicals, and to provide for emergency response in the event of health-threatening release. Central to its operation are reporting requirements compelling users of specified toxic and hazardous chemicals to file annual “emergency and hazardous chemical inventory forms” and “toxic chemical release forms,” which contain, inter alia, the name and location of the facility, the name and quantity of the chemical on hand, and, in the ease of toxic chemicals, the waste-disposal method employed and the annual quantity released into each…
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