A federal judge in August dismissed a Columbia Heights couple’s lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lucas and Leslie Sterling claim their home was contaminated by dioxins and other chemicals because it was built on a state Superfund site without their knowledge.

They were asking the EPA for emergency funding so they could relocate from their home. 

The contaminants come from the old Beaver Wood Products facility that used to be there, where the company made and treated fenceposts and other materials.

But Missoula District Court Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto in her ruling said the EPA was not required under Superfund law to disclose the property had been or still was contaminated.

The Sterlings bought the house in 2008, but claimed they weren’t informed about the contamination until eight years later.

The EPA has since fully admitted that there are dioxins in the soils near their home and even previously offered to remove the dirt around it. But the site is not a federal Superfund site, it is a Montana Superfund site.

The EPA, however, administered the cleanup of the area from 2000 to 2007, but at one point an EPA official cautioned that the cleanup might not treat the soils for dioxins, a known carcinogen.

Still, DeSoto found that the Superfund law did not require the agency to notify the Sterlings.

“To the contrary, EPA regulations state that actions implementing (Superfund) ‘are discretionary government functions,’”

DeSoto also found the court lacked jurisdiction to order the EPA to relocate the Sterlings while the case proceeded.

The Sterlings represented themselves in the case and DeSoto did leave the door open for them to refile claims if they could refine their arguments.

The Sterlings initially sued the  EPA for $36.7 million in March 2025, but that case was dismissed as well.

They could not be reached for comment.