Supreme Court Won’t Review Tribal Phosphorus Dumping Fee Case

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to determine whether the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes can charge chemical manufacturer FMC Corp. an annual $1.5 million fee for dumping hazardous waste within their boundaries.

FMC claims the tribes don’t have the authority to charge a fee for storing the waste from its former phosphorus production plant, located mostly inside the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho. The lower court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, determined the tribes could do so, even though the Environmental Protection Agency set a Superfund cleanup plan for the site.

“The practical consequences of the decision...