A district court ordered EPA to submit within 60 days a schedule on when it proposes to complete its review and revision of its RCRA Subtitle D coal ash regulations. In 1980, Congress amended RCRA by adding §3001(b)(3)(A)(ii), known as the Bevill Amendment, to prohibit EPA from regulating mining an...

A district court held that the Virgin Islands may go forward with its suit to recover response costs it incurred responding to the release of hazardous substances at a former alumina facility. Under CERCLA, at least some costs must be incurred prior to the start of litigation in order for a plaintif...

A district court held that a property owner may go forward with its CERCLA claims against several retail stores in connection with contamination stemming from the property, but dismissed the owner's RCRA claims. The owner entered into a consent order with Oklahoma's environmental agency that set for...

The Second Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court decision dismissing as time barred New York's CERCLA claims against several defendants for costs a town incurred investigating and addressing groundwater contamination stemming from the New Cassel Industrial Area. The lower court held that the st...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court's conviction of a chemical company owner for illegally storing hazardous wastes without a permit in violation of RCRA. On appeal, the owner argued that the lower court improperly instructed the jury about the distinction between "storage" and "disposal" of ha...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that insurers had no duty to defend or indemnify an oil refinery in an underlying CERCLA lawsuit filed against it by EPA. EPA sent the refinery a letter in 2001 notifying it that it was a PRP. Because EPA's allegations in the letter arguably fell wi...

The Ninth Circuit held that an insurance company breached its duty to defend a trucking equipment company when it refused to provide a defense after the company received letters from EPA notifying it of its potential liability under CERCLA for environmental contamination at the Portland Harbor Super...

The Third Circuit held that a PRP that entered into a consent decree resolving its state-law liability with the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in connection with contamination at an industrial facility may seek contribution under CERCLA from a second PRP. The court held that CERCLA §113(f)(3)(B) does...

The D.C. Circuit ordered NRC to resume processing of DOE's pending license application to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires NRC to issue a final decision approving or disapproving the application within three years of its submission. DOE submitted its appli...

The Third Circuit, in a case involving a contaminated site in New Jersey, affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision finding the former owner of the site liable to the current owner under CERCLA but not RCRA. The lower court ruled that the current owner's claim for injunctive relie...