Editors' Summary: In last month's issue, Jeffrey G. Miller analyzed Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. v. Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Inc., where the United States Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs in FWPCA §505 citizen suits must make a good faith allegation of ongoing or intermittent violation. Professor Miller suggested that Gwaltney leaves so many important questions unresolved that it constitutes an "invitation to the dance of litigation." This month, we asked practicing attorneys actively involved in citizen suit litigation to give us their views of Gwaltney.

Editors' Summary: In last month's issue, Jeffrey G. Miller analyzed Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. v. Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Inc., where the United States Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs in FWPCA §505 citizen suits must make a good faith allegation of ongoing or intermittent violation. Professor Miller suggested that Gwaltney leaves so many important questions unresolved that it constitutes an "invitation to the dance of litigation." This month, we asked practicing attorneys actively involved in citizen suit litigation to give us their views of Gwaltney.

Editors' Summary: One of the landmark environmental decisions handed down by the Supreme Court in recent years is Tull v. United States, holding that defendants have a right to a jury trial to determine liability for government-sought civil penalties. The decision is based on the Constitution's Seventh Amendment, and so is probably more permanent than an opinion based on statutory interpretation, which the Environmental Protection Agency could seek statutory amendments to effectively reverse.

Editors' Summary: One of the most important participants in the Superfund scheme is the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Established in 1980 pursuant to CERCLA, the ATSDR evaluates the potential health problems caused by individual NPL sites and analyzes the health effects of numerous substances subject to Superfund cleanup. Dr.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a statutory obligation to begin 175 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) cleanups by October 1989, and 200 more CERCLA cleanups by October 1991.¹ If EPA is to meet these deadlines, it must negotiate on a truly massive scale with potentially responsible parties (PRPs), to ensure private cleanups at many sites.² Even so, EPA has generally insisted on provisions in CERCLA consent decrees calling for draconian stipulated penalties and one-sided dispute reso

Editors' Summary: The high cost of resolving environmental disputes through litigation has made alternative dispute resolution (ADR) an increasingly attractive alternative. The high transaction costs of Superfund litigation would seemingly provide a strong incentive for the parties to use ADR. While non-binding mediation and negotiation techniques have been attempted in most Superfund cases, potentially responsible parties (PRPs) often reach an impasse on the issue of the proper allocation of cleanup costs.

Editors' Summary: When citizens and local governments are confronted with problems of pollution and environmental contamination, one of their options is to use the courts to seek enforcement of environmental laws against polluters or to recover the cost of cleaning up the contamination. In this Article, or to recover the cost of cleaning up the contamination. In this Article, Mr. Babich and Mr.

The enactment of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA),¹ and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to administer it in 1970 marked a turning point in the recent environmental history of the United States. Beginning in 1950, new forms of environmental pollution appeared and rapidly intensified: smog, acid rain, excess nitrate and phosphate in water supplies, pesticides and toxic chemicals in the food chain and our bodies, and dangerous accumulations of radioactive waste.

Editors' Summary: Environmental auditing has become one of the most widely used techniques for detecting and preventing environmental problems before they get out of hand. Increasingly, corporations with sophisticated environmental staffs are using the technique to evaluate not only the corporation's own pollution concerns but also those of corporations that are possible partners in a merger or acquisition. Environmental auditing is thus becoming part of the "due diligence" practiced in evaluating major business transactions.

Editors' Summary: When Congress originally enacted CERCLA in 1980, it gave the state and federal governments a strong arsenal of tools to respond to actual or threatened releases of hazardous substances. CERCLA authorized state and federal governments to recover response costs and natural resource damages from responsible parties. However, CERCLA authorized only the federal government to obtain injunctive relief to compel responsible parties to perform remedial actions.