A district court denies property owners' motions to sanction the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for violating discovery orders in the owners' toxic-tort suit against DOE contractors that operate the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production facility. The court also denies, for the most part, the contr...
The Seventh Circuit dismissed Michigan's petition for review of an EPA rule redesignating certain Native American lands to Class I status under the CAA's prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) program. Michigan's challenge raises some important issues about the PSD program's regulatory struct...
The court holds that a manufacturer is liable for response costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for dumping scrap steel and aluminum at a Superfund site. The court also grants another company's motion to certify for interlocutory appeal wheth...
The court holds that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Eastern Enterprises v. Apfel, 118 S. Ct. 2131 (1998), does not undercut the constitutionality of retroactive liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). In Eastern Enterprises, the Supre...
Earlier this year in KFC Western, Inc. v. Meghrig, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that private parties may obtain restitution of the costs of cleaning up contaminated property under §7002(a)(1)(B) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The Ninth Circuit's ruling in KFC Western opened the way for private parties to use the RCRA citizen suit provision to recover their costs of investigating, studying, and cleaning up contaminated property from responsible parties.
The court holds that under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the former owners of a contaminated site in Georgia are liable for the disposal of hazardous waste at the site. A potentially responsible party (PRP) shipped containers of hazardous waste t...