Weekly Cases Update Volume 43, Issue 3

Alaska Survival v. Surface Transportation Board

ELR 20016

12-70218 (9th Cir., January 2013)

The Ninth Circuit denied a petition challenging the Surface Transportation Board's (STB's) decision to grant an exemption and authorize a railroad company to build railroad line extension between Port MacKenzie and Wasilla, Alaska. The proposed rail line will pass through the waters and wetlands...

Keywords: Discussion of, held adequate

Honeywell International, Inc. v. Environmental Protection Agency

ELR 20020

10-1347 (D.C. Cir., January 2013)

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The D.C. Circuit denied a company's petition for review challenging certain 2008 transfers made by competitor companies under the cap-and-trade program for
hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). The transfers permanently increased the competitors' future baseline allowances of HCFC-22. Because...

Sierra Club v. Environmental Protection Agency

ELR 20019

10-1413 (D.C. Cir., January 2013)

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The D.C. Circuit vacated and remanded portions of an EPA rule establishing regulations for particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) under CAA §166. The rule established significant impact levels (SILs) and a significant monitoring concentration (SMC) for PM2.5, screening tools EPA...

Boston Gas Co. v. Century Indemnity Co.

ELR 20017

11-1931 (1st Cir., January 2013)

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The First Circuit, in a case involving an insurance company's obligations to its insured for damages stemming from contamination at a former manufactured gas plant, upheld a lower court decision allocating damages evenly across the 121-year span from the time of plant operations to trial,...

Keywords: Allocation of damages

United States v. House of Raeford Farms, Inc.

ELR 20022

1:12CR248-1 (M.D.N.C., January 2013)

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A district court denied a poultry-processing company's motions for a new trial, for a judgment of acquittal, and to arrest judgment in a CWA case in which the company was found guilty for discharging untreated wastewater to a city's publicly owned treatment works. The city's pretreatment program...

Keywords: State water quality standards, State programs, §402(b)

Westlands Water District v. United States

ELR 20021

12-12 C (Fed. Cl., January 2013)

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The Court of Federal Claims dismissed a water district's breach of contract claims against the United States for failing to provide water drainage facilities and services. The district argued that the contracts it entered into with the government expressly obligated the government to provide...

Keywords: Government contracts, Irrigation

Shell Oil Co. v. United States

ELR 20023

06-141C, -1411C (Fed. Cl., January 2013)

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The Court of Federal Claims held that the U.S. government need not reimburse oil companies for costs they incurred cleaning up contamination stemming from the production of aviation fuel during World War II. During the 1940s, at the urging of the U.S. government, the companies entered into...

Keywords: Disposal site cleanup, Government contracts

Indian Harbor Insurance Co. v. United States

ELR 20018

12-5030 (Fed. Cir., January 2013)

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The Federal Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing an insurance company's reimbursement action under the National Defense Authorization Act for cleanup costs associated with the development of property formerly used as a military base. The lower court determined that the...

Keywords: Disposal site cleanup

Weekly Cases Update Volume 43, Issue 3

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