ELR Citation: ELR 20091
No(s). 04-1909 (1st Cir. May 3, 2005)

The First Circuit held that neither the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) nor the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) waive U.S. sovereign immunity in a property owner's suit to recover monetary damages for its cleanup of past oil contamination on a former U.S. Navy base. RCRA contains no express waiver of immunity for private suits seeking monetary damages. And the FTCA only waives sovereign immunity for negligent or wrongful conduct by a federal employee. Here, the property owner failed to establish that the United States was "negligent or wrongful."