On 9/16/99 the Eighth Circuit ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency can not bring its own enforcement action under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to secure additional penalties or impose other burdens on companies that generate wastes deemed hazardous under the Act. States currently administer their own RCRA-authorized programs that include settlements of violations. The court agreed with an NAM amicus brief asserting that the power of EPA to "overfile," or simultaneously enforce RCRA against companies being prosecuted under state RCRA programs would subject manufacturers to duplicative or inconsistent corrective measures and additional penalties. According to the court, the state enforcement authority is in lieu of and supplants the federal program.This is an important victory for manufacturers that have been subjected to multiple enforcement actions by the EPA and affected states.