## Facts

- Tribal members residing on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation sued over multiple open garbage dumps allegedly violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA).
- The district court found serious health and environmental hazards at fourteen dump sites located near homes, schools, and water sources.
- Many sites were unsupervised and lacked basic sanitary controls (e.g., fencing, trenches, dirt cover), and fires had occurred at all locations.
- Water testing showed contamination with organisms capable of causing disease in humans and wildlife, with heightened risk during heavy rain or flooding.
- Plaintiffs sued federal agencies (BIA and IHS) and the Oglala Sioux Tribe; the EPA and its Administrator were dismissed.
- The district court held the Tribe, BIA, and IHS shared responsibility to achieve compliance and ordered them to submit a compliance plan within 120 days.

## Issues

1. Whether RCRA clearly abrogates a tribe’s sovereign immunity for claims seeking to enforce compliance with solid waste disposal requirements.
2. Whether plaintiffs were required to exhaust tribal-court remedies before pursuing RCRA claims in federal court.
3. Whether responsibility under RCRA and related federal requirements for correcting and preventing noncompliant open dumps was exclusive to the Tribe or to federal agencies, or instead shared.
4. Whether RCRA’s citizen-suit provisions authorize injunctive relief requiring development and submission of a compliance plan for ongoing violations.

## Decision

- The court of appeals affirmed the district court’s judgment.
- It held that RCRA authorizes suit against the Tribe for the alleged violations because Congress abrogated tribal sovereign immunity for such enforcement actions.
- It held that exhaustion of tribal-court remedies was not required in this federal statutory enforcement action involving federal defendants and federal standards.
- It rejected both the Tribe’s and the federal agencies’ arguments that responsibility was solely on the other party, and affirmed that the Tribe, BIA, and IHS shared responsibility to bring the dumps into compliance.
- It upheld the order requiring submission of a plan within 120 days to bring the dump sites into compliance with federal standards.

## Legal Principles

- Congress may subject Indian tribes to suit when statutory text and structure show a clear intent to abrogate tribal sovereign immunity; RCRA was interpreted to do so for enforcement of its solid waste disposal requirements.
- RCRA’s citizen-suit provisions authorize federal-court actions to address ongoing statutory violations and permit injunctive relief aimed at achieving compliance.
- When federal agencies and a tribe have overlapping roles in providing, operating, or permitting waste disposal services, a court may impose shared compliance obligations consistent with RCRA’s remedial scheme.
- Tribal-court exhaustion is not required where a federal statute provides a direct federal forum and the action centers on uniform federal environmental requirements, particularly when federal defendants are parties.

## Conclusion

The Eighth Circuit affirmed injunctive relief under RCRA requiring the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the BIA, and the IHS to jointly develop a timely compliance plan to remediate and prevent unlawful open dumping on the Pine Ridge Reservation, holding that RCRA permits citizen suits against a tribe and does not require prior tribal-court exhaustion in these circumstances.


Blue Legs v. U.S. Bureau of Indian Affs., 867 F.2d 1094 (8th Cir. 1989)