But the very end was sudden, if this really is the end.

Superfund cases can go on for a bit.  In this one, EPA issued a Record of Decision in 2012 selecting a remedy for the Centredale Manor Superfund Site in Rhode Island.   One of the elements of that remedy was a very expensive RCRA Subtitle C cap to cover contaminated soil.  EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order compelling entities responsible for the contamination to implement the remedy, including the construction of the expensive cap.  

The order recipients did something quite unusual in the history of Superfund: they said no, asserting that EPA's remedy was arbitrary and therefore they couldn't be forced to implement it.  Much discovery and a long trial were had.  And then a Federal District Court Judge did something even more unusual -- he refused to enforce EPA's Administrative Order, agreeing with the order recipients that EPA's selection of the remedy, including the expensive cap, was sufficiently flawed to render it unenforceable.  Fast forwarding a few scenes, EPA added to the Administrative Record, the Federal Government kicked in some money, compromises were made, and then certain of the order recipients agreed to implement a remedy, including the same expensive cap.  The same Federal Judge approved the Consent Decree, including the expensive cap, and then non-settling responsible parties appealed to the First Circuit, making the same complaints that were made originally.  Two First Circuit Judges exclaim in response "there is nothing amiss here," deferring to the Judge who had been enmeshed in the details of the case for over a decade and making plain that something once arbitrary doesn't necessarily remain arbitrary.  It remains to be seen whether this is the last litigation chapter of this particular Superfund story but in this case, so far, the second time is the charm.