A district court held that a group of PRPs in connection with a former hazardous waste incinerator in Kentucky may go forward with their CERCLA cost recovery and contribution claims against a group of companies that allegedly generated and/or transported hazardous waste to the site. The companies ar...
A Michigan appellate court held that Mich. Admin. Rule 324.102(x), which defines the term “injection well,” does not include wells completed using hydraulic fracturing. Accordingly, "frack" wells are not subject to the environmental regulations applicable to injection wells. For a well to be cat...
A district court held that a Nebraska law passed in 2012 to expedite the approval of a new route for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline through the state is unconstitutional. Article IV, §20, of the Nebraska Constitution commits exclusively to the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) the au...
The Supreme Court of Missouri reversed and remanded a lower court decision that a proposed ordinance that would impose additional sales taxes to pay for a light rail system in Kansas City, Missouri, violates the state constitution. The case arose after a community activist sought to place the ordina...
A district court held that an insurance company may go forward with its CERCLA claim against several refrigerator waste oil companies for reimbursement of payments it incurred following a hazardous waste spill by its insured. In Chubb Custom Insurance Co. v. Space Systems/Loral Inc., 710 F.3d 946, 4...
The Seventh Circuit held that a lower court should have awarded a real estate firm double damages for harm caused by an oil company during its attempt to clean up pollution at gas stations in Michigan the firm leased to it. The firm filed a breach of contract claim and a waste claim for eight sites ...
The Second Circuit affirmed in part, and vacated and remanded in part, a lower court's allocation of contribution costs in connection with the remediation of two Niagara Falls, New York, properties. Below, the lower court held a chemical manufacturer liable to a solvent company for contribution. On ...
A district court denied environmental groups' motions for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's wolf trapping and hunting program in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness area. Since December 2013, seven gray wolves have bee...
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 ...