The First Circuit struck down two Puerto Rican municipalities' ban of the disposal of coal ash at landfills within their borders. In 2015, Puerto Rico's Environmental Quality Board (EQB) approved a request from two landfills to receive coal ash from a coal-fired energy plant. Two years prior, the mu...
A district court held that an insurer is not liable for damages in connection with environmental cleanup costs stemming from a biofuel firm's recycling of catfish and other oils. The biofuel firm entered into a fat, oil, and grease recycling agreement (FOG) with a catfish company and rented property...
A district court found that an Indiana Superfund law allows for contribution claims even though the law does not directly reference them. In 2013, a hardware manufacturing company was found liable by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) for releases of hazardous substances on an...
A Pennsylvania court denied an insurer's motion for summary judgment, holding that it had no obligation to defend or indemnify toxic waste claims against its policyholder that occurred after the end of its policy. The policyholder was insured by the defendant from 1969 to 1979. In 2010, the Pennsylv...
A Pennsylvania court denied an insurer's motion for summary judgment, holding that it had no obligation to defend or indemnify toxic waste claims against its policyholder that occurred after the end of its policy. The policyholder was insured by the defendant from 1969 to 1979. In 2010, the Pennsylv...
The D.C. Circuit vacated an EPA final rule that exempted farms from reporting requirements for air releases from animal waste. In 2008 the EPA issued a final rule that generally exempts farms from CERCLA and EPCRA reporting requirements for air releases from animal waste, reasoning that the reports ...
A district court allowed a CERCLA recovery claim to go forward in a case involving mercury cleanup at the Thomas Edison light bulb factory. The plaintiff bought the property from the seller and the parties entered into an indemnification and settlement agreement (ISA). The plaintiffs brought suit ag...
A district court held that a property owner could not sue for cost recovery under CERCLA in connection with a New York property where uranium was processed for the first atomic bomb because the claim was untimely. In December 2012, the plaintiffs purchased the property from one of the defendants on ...
A district court held that cow manure can be a hazardous substance under CERCLA. A citizen group sued a dairy farm for its part in contaminating Lake San Marcos. The dairy farm moved for judgment on the pleadings on the grounds that no actionable hazardous release was claimed. The court held that CE...
The New Jersey Supreme Court held that the state hazardous waste spill law, which waives state immunity for hazardous waste suits, does not apply to spills that predate the law. In 1968, a development corporation built a seawall on state-owned land. In 2007, the state environmental department detect...