A district court rejected a settlement agreement between a property owner and a former dry cleaning business concerning subsurface soil and groundwater perchloroethylene contamination. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the owner requested that the court adopt a "pro tanto" settlement cred...

A district court held a potentially responsible party (PRP) liable for 80% of past and future response costs incurred at the Boarhead Farms Superfund site in Pennsylvania. Although the PRP's volumetric share of waste disposed at the site was 62%, the court added 8.7% for dealing with a known pollute...

The Eleventh Circuit held that a violation notice and civil complaint do not, by themselves, inevitably trigger the Enivironmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) duty to object to a Title V operating permit under Clean Air Act §505(b)(2). The court therefore denied a petition to review EPA's decis...

The Sixth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision upholding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) approval of Kentucky's regulatory implementation of its Tier II water quality antidegradation rules. EPA's approval of Kentucky's classification of certain waters a...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) denial of an electricity cooperative's application for a license to construct, operate, and maintain a new hydroelectric power generating facility on the Madison River in Gallatin County, Montana. FERC's conclusion that t...

A Vermont environmental court held that certain unregulated stormwater discharges that flow into five impaired brooks contribute to violations of the Vermont water quality standards and require national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permits under the Clean Water Act. The state agenc...

The Tenth Circuit upheld the dismissal of landowners' Solid Waste Disposal Act and Administrative Procedures Act claims filed against the U.S. government for failing to clean up land it leased from the owners' grandfather in the 1940s for military training purposes. Although the court is sympathetic...

A district court held that a local water agency may seek punitive damages in its negligence claim against a chemical manufacturer for drinking water contamination. California law permits punitive damages to be awarded in tort actions where the plaintiff shows by clear and convincing evidence that de...

The Fourth Circuit upheld a district court's issuance of a warrant authorizing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to inspect a former U.S. Navy ship for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The owner of the ship argued that in enacting the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Congress grant...

A district court dismissed companies' Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107 claims against other potentially responsible parties (PRP) for the costs of cleaning up polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination in the Lower Fox River, holding that the...