A Washington State appellate court held that the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) can be held liable as an "owner or operator" under the state Model Toxic Control Act (MTCA) at the Port Gamble Bay and Mill site. The Department of Ecology determined that activities at the site between 1853...

The Tenth Circuit reversed a district court ruling that barred a mining company from pursuing a CERCLA contribution claim for the Lower Silver Creek/Richardson Flat site because of representations it made to a bankruptcy court concerning its settlement agreement with EPA. In 2009, as part of a Chapt...

The Ninth Circuit held that BLM violated NEPA when it approved a proposed molybdenum mining operation near Eureka, Nevada. Environmental groups filed suit against BLM, challenging the agency's analysis of the project's cumulative air impacts and the baseline levels of certain air pollutants, and the...

A district court, on cross-motions for summary judgment, held that a utility company should not be held liable under CERCLA for the release of hazardous substances on two properties owned by an energy company. The energy company brought this action under CERCLA to recover cleanup costs it incurred i...

A district court denied as untimely a newspaper’s motion to intervene in a case involving a 27-year-old CERCLA action. The newspaper claimed it had, under state law, the right to information related to confidential settlement negotiations that took place between the U.S. government and a mining co...

A district court held that a manufacturing company is entitled to $1.7 million in litigation costs from its insurer in an underlying 2003 lawsuit concerning hazardous waste contamination at one of the company's properties stemming from the 1950s. The insurer alleged that the property damage occurred...

The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and remanded in part a lower court decision dismissing a helium extraction company's breach of contract claims against the United States. In 1994, the parties entered a contract under which BLM gave the company the right to extract helium gas from roughly 21,000 ...

The Federal Claims Court held that DOE owes an energy company nearly $34.5 million in damages for failing to perform its contractual obligations to remove spent nuclear fuel from a nuclear power plant in New York. The court granted all of the company's claims except for the Part 171 NRC fees, the re...