A district court, on motions for reconsideration and for leave to amend counterclaims, held that a gas company may seek recovery costs under CERCLA and the Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act against the plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiffs seek recovery of costs they ...
The D.C. Circuit denied a petition challenging a magnesium plant's inclusion on the NPL. EPA uses a hazard ranking system (HRS) to determine whether to place a site on the NPL. Petitioners argued that EPA erred in calculating the HRS score and that if these errors were corrected, the site's ...
The Second Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that the parent corporation of nine manufactured gas plants (MGPs) is not an "operator" of those plants for purposes of CERCLA liability. The current owners of the MGP sites filed suit against the parent corporation, seeking to recover costs th...
A district court held that a lumber company's CERCLA action against the former owner of the company's sawmill and plywood manufacturing plant for reimbursement of past and future cleanup costs associated with the site is not barred by contract. When the lumber company purchased the plant in 1993, th...
A district court, on motions for summary judgment, held that a property owner may go forward with its CERCLA claims against a printing company for environmental contamination stemming from the company's operations, but it dismissed the owner's RCRA claims against the company. The printing compa...
A district court modified its equitable allocation of costs under §113 of CERCLA and the New Jersey Spill Act in connection with a site contaminated with TCE and other hazardous substances. The court originally allocated 65% of costs to the plaintiffs, 32% to the defendants, and 3% to the federal g...
A district court dismissed property owners' CERCLA, RCRA, and CWA claims against the current owner of a contaminated site for damages caused by the migration of contamination onto their property. Each of the three federal statutes requires plaintiffs to provide the owner with particular notice of th...
vUnited States v. Western Reman Industrial Inc., No. 11-cv-00008 (N.D. Ind. Jan. 10, 2011). A settling CERCLA defendant responsible for violations at the former Grissom Air Force Base in Peru, Indiana, must pay $300,000 in past and future U.S. response costs incurred at the site.
United States v. Lookout Mountain Mining & Milling Co., No. 11-0029 (D. Idaho Jan. 25, 2011). Settling CERCLA defendants responsible for violations at the Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex Superfund site in northern Idaho must assign their interest in insurance policies to a trust and must pay 2% of net smelter returns from future activities.
United States v. Kansas City Southern Railway Co., No. 1:07-cv-1793 (W.D. La. Jan. 21, 2011). Under a modified 2008 consent decree, a settling CERCLA defendant's cleanup at the Ruston Foundry Superfund site in Alexandria, Louisiana, will permit unrestricted use of the site.