A district court granted South Carolina's motion to preliminarily enjoin DOE from terminating a mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility project currently under construction until the case can be decided on its merits. The project is designed to turn weapons-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel...

The Second Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that CERCLA preempts state tort law claims brought by residents living near the Onondaga Lake Superfund site. The owner of the site undertook remedial action pursuant to a federal consent decree. The residents argued, on a state tort law theory, tha...

The D.C. Circuit vacated EPA's placement of the West Vermont Drinking Water Contamination site, a site of groundwater contamination beneath Indianapolis, Indiana, on the NPL. EPA used the hazard ranking system (HRS) to determine whether listing was appropriate. As part of that process, EPA assessed ...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction enjoining California Department of Public Health officials from enforcing the California Medical Waste Management Act (MWMA) against a medical waste facility with regard to how it disposes of medical waste at facilities outside the state. The facilit...

The Ninth Circuit held that a property owner who purchased the site at a tax sale is not entitled to CERCLA's third-party defense to liability for cleanup costs. The purchaser had a "contractual relationship" with the prior owner by virtue of the tax sale. Given the breadth of CERCLA's definition of...

A district court held that a company is liable under RCRA for soil and water contamination at a former solid waste disposal area it used and operated in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Environmental groups filed motions for partial summary judgment against the company, claiming it was liable because...

A Pennsylvania appellate court reversed and remanded a lower court's decision that the owner of an oil and gas company should be liable for failing to plug 47 abandoned oil and gas wells located in Erie and Crawford Counties. The state environmental agency issued an administrative order requiring th...

The D.C. Circuit clarified an earlier ruling vacating portions of a 2015 rule that defined when certain hazardous materials were deemed discarded—as opposed to legitimately recycled—and therefore subject to EPA's oversight under RCRA. In 2017, the court upheld some aspects of the rule and vacate...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed a mining company's lawsuit challenging EPA's decision to place the entire Bonita Peak Mining District, located in Colorado's Mineral Belt, on the NPL. The mining company owns a mine located in the district, but its mine was not one of the sites scored under the hazard rank...

A district court held that residents of the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago cannot intervene in a CERCLA settlement agreement after the agreement was approved. In 2016, residents of the housing complex were told to evacuate the complex because of severe contamination from the USS Lead S...