The court rules that the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Y-12 nuclear weapons components plant is subject to the provisions of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and that DOE has violated the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) by allowing unpermitted discharges of pollutants f...
In light of the Supreme Court ruling in Secretary of the Interior v. California, 14 ELR 20129, the circuit court reverses and remands the district court's ruling requiring consistency determinations under the Coastal Zone Management Act for outer continental shelf oil and gas lease sales, 13 ELR 206...
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts signs a consent agreement to recover over $1.9 million expended for cleanup of the Silresim Chemical Corp. site in Lowell. In the agreement, 231 corporations agree to pay sums ranging from $16.41 to $287,190.31 in return for release from civil liability for cleanup ...
The court rules that defendants' repeated violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) demonstrate the willfulness required under §1414(b) of the Act for imposition of civil penalties. The court rules that plaintiff need not prove defendants had a "bad purpose" to establish "willfulness" under ...
The court appoints a third-party trustee under FED. R. CIV. P. 70 to restore wetlands filled without a Federal Water Pollution Control Act §404 permit and holds the owner of the wetlands, who has ignored a previous restoration order, in contempt. Should the trustee fail to restore the wetland, the ...
The court rules that sale of a hazardous substance to a chemical recycler for use and disposal at the recycler's facility constitutes arranging for the disposal of hazardous substances at a facility containing such substances under §107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and...
The court rules that mining wastes are hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) if they qualify as hazardous under one of the statutes, other than the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), incorporated by reference into th...
The court rules that any judgment against defendants in a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) cost-recovery action that is based on joint and several liability must be reduced by the full amount received by the government in earlier settlements in the actio...
The court holds that defendants' motion for a ruling that plaintiff may not recover costs from third-party defendant generators is not ripe. The court first rejects defendants' unsupported argument that plaintiff is estopped from seeking recovery from the third-party defendants. The court then rules...
The court upholds the Corps of Engineers' finding under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that a wetland filling project in Puerto Rico would have no significant environmental impact. The Corps found that the net impact of the proposed fill would be positive, destroying 100 acres of ecolo...