The U.S. Supreme Court, in an unsigned judgment and decree, ordered Wyoming to pay Montana $20,340 in damages, plus $67,270.87 in costs, for reducing the amount of water available in the Tongue River in violation of the Yellowstone River Compact. The Compact protects pre-1950 appropriative rights to...

The New Jersey Superior Court upheld an oil company's $225 million Spill Act settlement in connection with contamination at two oil refineries in Bayonne and Linden, New Jersey. The natural resources damages were estimated at $8.9 billion. In a settlement agreement, the New Jersey Department of Envi...

A district court held that EPA's year-long delay in implementing formaldehyde emission standards for domestically manufactured and imported composite wood products violated the Formaldehyde Standards in Composite Wood Products Act. The Act required EPA to issue implementing regulations no later than...

The Tenth Circuit ruled that an Oklahoma citizen has no claim against an oil company on allegations that his cancer was caused by decades of breathing benzene fumes from its oil refinery near his home. In 2011, the man was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. In 2016, he brought suit against the oil com...

A Pennsylvania court affirmed a lower court decision dismissing residents' and an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the construction of a natural gas pipeline through a suburban township. The plaintiffs argued that a local zoning ordinance prohibits the construction of hazardous gas and liqu...

The First Circuit held that a pesticide company is not liable for cleaning up PCB-laden caulk installed in a Massachusetts middle school in the 1960s. Before August 1970, the pesticide company sold PCB mixtures to formulators of building materials, who then incorporated them into various end product...

A California appellate court held that three paint companies will have to reimburse the state for the cost of stripping lead paint from the interior of thousands of houses in San Francisco and nine other cities and counties. The state claimed the companies sold and advertised lead paint for resident...

A district court held that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) being regulated under TSCA does not bar a Wisconsin couple from bringing a citizen suit under RCRA against a neighboring property owner for releasing PCBs during the demolition of a building on its property. The couple alleged that the demo...