The Ninth Circuit held that a trial court did not err in not allowing evidence of the defendant's diminished mental capacity in a case involving a criminal conviction under RCRA. The defendant was sentenced to 46 months in prison for storing more than 3,000 containers of paint and paint-related mate...

A district court ruled that a manufacturing company will not be required to conduct further investigation of contamination that is already subject to a remediation agreement. In 2010, a consent agreement between the manufacturing company and a golf course owner obligated the company to perform remed...

A district court ruled that passive migration of benzene from a former steel mill to an adjoining shipyard does not make the owners liable for a "disposal" under CERCLA. The plaintiff's shipyard contained a "graving dock," which is used for the "repair or scrapping of ships under dry conditions." Th...

A district court held that an industrial chemical company is not liable for fines for refusing to comply with an administrative order under CERCLA. In an previous decision, the company was found jointly and severally liable for the release of dioxin at the Centredale Manor Restoration Project Superf...

A district court held that a natural gas company can seek contribution from the federal government for uranium contamination cleanup under CERCLA. The company filed suit against the federal government for contribution for costs incurred cleaning up 19 former uranium mines on a Navajo reservation as ...

The Tenth Circuit held that a mining company has the right to recover cleanup costs at a Superfund site because the U.S. government was an owner under the statute. Over the last century, the mining company and its corporate predecessors mined molybdenum at a site near Questa, New Mexico. The mining ...

A district court held that an agriculture company cannot pursue Superfund cost recovery against Spokane, Washington, over polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination in the Spokane River. The company produced PCBs from 1935 to 1970 that the city of Spokane claimed contributed to the impairment of t...

The D.C. Circuit held that EPA's verified recycler exclusion under RCRA was unreasonable. In 2015, EPA issued a final rule rule governing when certain hazardous materials qualify as “discarded,” subjecting them to the Agency's authority. The new rule required generators of waste to meet special ...

The Sixth Circuit held that a battery company did not waive insurance coverage in connection with a battery storage facility in New Jersey because of a settlement with its insurance company decades prior. The battery company acquired another company and discovered that several of its factories may h...

A Virginia appeals court held that ash from incineration of biosolids at a wastewater treatment plant cannot be used to raise the ground level of a flood-prone agricultural field. In 2008, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) began using the ash to raise the ground level of flood-prone field...