On March 22, 2008, The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (D.C. District Court) issued a favorable decision in West Virginia Highlands Conservancy v. Johnson, dismissing a lawsuit filed by several environmental groups seeking to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct studies of coal mine waste pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). This decision is a significant victory because it avoids an EPA-focused study of coal mine wastes under RCRA, and also makes it unlikely that the agency will undertake any reexamination of additional coal mine waste regulation.
