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Petroleum Waste Sites Revisited: Oiling the Gears of the CERCLA/RCRA Suit

One of the more daunting tasks facing environmental practitioners over the past decade or two has been the recovery of cleanup costs and related relief at sites contaminated with petroleum substances. Parties seeking relief face significant hurdles under the federal environmental statutes. The key federal environmental cost-recovery statute, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) often provides little help because of its petroleum exclusion.

The Riches of the Desert: Can the Bureau of Land Management Reject a Mining Operation Based on Historic and Cultural Concerns?

At first glance, the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) is a 25-million-acre expanse of sand dunes, brush lands, rock formations, and loneliness and desolation. However, a cursory look at the landscape belies the desert's significant historical, scenic, archeological, environmental, biological, cultural, scientific, educational, recreational, and economic resources" that the U.S. Congress recognized when it dedicated the area in 1976.

Life After RCRA—It's More Than a Brownfields Dream

Conventional wisdom says that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is an impediment to the reuse of brownfields. Examination of a decade of experience, however, reveals that properties "captured by the net" of RCRA jurisdiction have gone on to new, productive, and economically viable reuse. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is also a great potential for many more RCRA properties to do so.

South Dakota Mining Ass'n v. Lawrence County

The court holds that the Federal Mining Act of 1872 preempts a local zoning ordinance that bans surface metal mining within the Spearfish Canyon area of South Dakota. The court first holds that miners' preemption claim against the county ordinance is ripe. The miners have shown a realistic danger of...

Minnesota v. Kalman W. Abrams Metals, Inc.

The court holds that a state may only recover from responsible private parties the nonarbitrary portions of response costs it incurred cleaning up lead-contaminated soils under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Minnesota Environmental Response...

Kleissler v. U.S. Forest Serv.

The court holds that local school districts, municipalities, and timber companies may intervene as of right in litigation brought by plaintiff-environmentalists to restrict logging activities in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. The court first notes that the parties do not dispute the ...

Seneca Meadows, Inc. v. ECI Liquidating, Inc.

The court holds that the owner of a contaminated landfill may only recover response costs from alleged generators of hazardous waste through a contribution action under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §113. The court first holds that the owner of the l...

Bedford Affiliates v. Sills

The court holds that a landowner that is a potentially responsible party (PRP) under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107(a) cannot maintain a §107(a) action against another PRP, but can seek contribution from that PRP under CERCLA §113(f). The lando...

Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project v. Pence

The court upholds a U.S. Forest Service decision to allow a timber sale in the Malheur National Forest in Oregon. The Forest Service's decision allows the harvest of approximately 10.7-million-board feet of timber from approximately 3,560 acres, which includes 92 acres of conifers encroaching on asp...

Everett v. United States

The court upholds the U.S. Forest Service's denial of a special use permit to land a private helicopter on a parcel of the Sawtooth National Forest that abuts the permit applicant's vacation property in rural Idaho. The court first holds that the Forest Service reasonably interpreted 36 C.F.R. §251...