Sierra Club v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit vacated EPA's gasification exclusion rule, which exempts from RCRA certain hazardous residuals left over from the petroleum refining process. Under the exclusion, oil-bearing hazardous secondary materials that are otherwise hazardous wastes under RCRA §3001 are exempted from RCRA r...
Natural Resources Defense Council v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit vacated EPA's comparable fuels exclusion, which exempts all fuels deemed comparable to non-hazardous waste-derived fossil fuels from the requirements set forth in RCRA §3004(q). Section 3004(q) directs EPA to establish standards applicable to all facilities that produce, burn for e...
Thompson Corners, LLC v. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
A New York appellate court held that the subsequent owner of property formerly used as a permitted hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal (TSD) facility need not provide financial assurance for the ongoing performance of corrective action on the property. Article 27 of New York's Environmen...
Appalachian Voices v. McCarthy
A district court rejected a proposed consent decree that would have required EPA to review and, where necessary, revise by December 19, 2014, certain regulations concerning coal ash under RCRA. The court determined that the proposed consent decree was fair, adequate, reasonable, appropriate, and gen...
El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. United States
The D.C. Circuit largely upheld the dismissal of a Native American tribe's RCRA and Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act claims against the United States and various federal agencies in connection with a former uranium mill and two hazardous waste facilities located on Navajo land. In 2010, E...
Evanston v. Texaco, Inc.
A district court held that a town may go forward with its RCRA and common law tort claims against an oil company for soil and groundwater contamination on and around a property formerly occupied by a gasoline service station. The company argued that the town failed to allege an "imminent and substan...
United States v. Mountain State Carbon LLC
A district court held that "coke oven gas condensate" (COGC) is not a solid waste under RCRA. The case arose after the U.S. government filed suit against a coke production facility for RCRA and CAA violations. The government alleged that COGC at the facility displays the toxicity characteristic for ...
Appalachian Voices v. McCarthy
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...
Stratford Holding, LLC v. Foot Locker Retail Inc.
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...