ELR Citation: 55 ELR 20061
No(s). 2:23-cv-7146 (NJC) (AYS) (E.D.N.Y. May 19, 2025) (Choudhury, J.)

A district court granted in part and denied in part an aerospace company's motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it failed to address the release of hazardous materials on an 18-acre property in the town of Oyster Bay between 1949 and 1962 and that has since become a community park. The town brought claims under RCRA and TSCA, as well as public nuisance and promissory estoppel claims under New York common law. The company moved to dismiss. The town moved for a preliminary injunction, arguing the company had since discovered concrete-encased metal barrels containing hazardous materials it had buried beneath the park between 1949 and 1962, and seeking an injunction ordering the company to proceed with digging open test pits per an investigation plan approved by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, but to dispose of all excavated soil off-site. The court denied the company's motion to dismiss the RCRA §7002(a)(1)(B) claim, because the town plausibly alleged the hazardous materials deposited at the park constituted an "imminent and substantial endangerment," or to dismiss its public nuisance claim, but dismissed the other claims. It denied the town's motion for preliminary injunction, finding it failed to show a clear likelihood of success on its claim that reburying soil back in the park on a temporary basis pending further remediation would violate RCRA §7002(a)(1)(B), that the temporary burial would result in irreparable harm, and that its proposed alternative—off-site removal of all soil from test pits—would serve the public interest or was favored by the balance of equities.