Dowdle

The Hanford Downwinders Coalition (“HDC”) and private plaintiffs appeal the district court’s decision to dismiss their request for injunctive relief against defendants-appellees Dr. Walter Dowdle, Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (“ATSDR”), and the ATSDR. The lower court dismissed the HDC’s claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim based on the Timing of Review provision of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”). See 42 U.S.C. § 9613 (h) (1988). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

I. FACTS

This case concerns the federal government’s continuing efforts to clean up hazardous waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (“Hanford”) in Richland, Washington. Beginning in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project and continuing for approximately thirty years, Hanford produced plutonium for use in this country’s national defense program. The production of nuclear materials at Hanford led to the release of radioactive iodine-131 and other hazardous materials into the region’s atmosphere, soil, and water. 1 While it has been established that the…