ARROGANCE OF THE EPA

It isn't every day that the good guys win and justice emerges from our court system. Such a day occurred last week, with a decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the Kem-Pest Superfund case. A three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld a ruling U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh made last year. Limbaugh's order enforced a 1991 consent decree to clean up a Superfund site that had been reached between Kem-Pest owners, the Charles Knote family of Cape Girardeau, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Judge Limbaugh's order had received national attention as one of the first instances in which a federal judge slapped down the arrogant overreaching of the bureaucrats at the EPA. Essentially, Limbaugh had held EPA to the deal they had earlier made with the Knotes. Faced with a judge who would stand up to them, even going so far as to write that they aren't an "administrative deity", and scoring the EPA for sanctimonious and contemptuous conduct, the EPA appealed. The appellate court agreed with Judge Limbaugh.

In fact, the EPA has become a runaway government-within-a-government. We are glad to see a private citizen show the starch to stand up to official arrogance, and even more glad to find federal judges who will slap down an overreaching federal agency when it is warranted.