A district court held that a corporation may be held liable under CERCLA for contamination stemming from smelting operations in the early 1900s by a subsidiary of the corporation's predecessor. Considering the totality of the circumstances, the smelting company was the alter ego of the corporation's...

A Pennsylvania court affirmed a lower court order granting the Pennsylvania Department of the Environment's (PaDEP's) petition to investigate, remediate, and clean up contamination on private property under the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (HSCA). The property became contaminated after a...

The New Jersey Supreme Court held that the general six-year statute of limitations for injury to real property does not apply to private claims for contribution made pursuant to the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act (Spill Act). The case arose after a commercial property owner sought to ...

The Sixth Circuit held that the three-year statute of limitations for contribution actions brought after an administrative settlement to perform a removal action begins running when the settlement becomes effective, not when the removal action is completed. In this case, the plaintiff—a group of P...

The Fifth Circuit held that a corporation should not be held liable as an arranger under CERCLA for costs associated with cleaning up a plume of perchloroethylene (PERC) that discharged from a dry cleaning business that operated in the 1960s and 1970s. A district court in 2006 had held the corporati...

A district court granted in part and denied in part a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit against a Canadian mining company for allegedly causing individuals residing near the Upper Columbia River to suffer various health diseases due to toxic and hazardous air emissions from the company's smel...

A district court held that a dairy's application, storage, and management of manure violated RCRA's substantial and imminent endangerment and open dumping provisions. Manure can generally be a useful product when stored and subsequently used as fertilizer. Here, however, the dairy applied manure in ...

A district court denied a swine farm's motion to strike an environmental group's request for a jury trial in their CWA and RCRA citizen suit. The group's citizen suit alleged that the farm illegally dumped swine waste onto surrounding lands and waters in violation of the two statutes. The farm argue...

The Second Circuit vacated individuals' convictions for making false statements and conspiring to violate CERCLA. The jury instructions stated that because the defendant has an interest in the outcome of the trial, he has a motive to testify falsely and that the jury should bear this in mind when ev...

A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss property owners' CERCLA contribution claims against a company for contamination stemming from a manufactured gas plant that the company's predecessor operated from the 1830s until the early 1900s. In 2010, some of the property ow...