Conventional wisdom says that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is an impediment to the reuse of brownfields. Examination of a decade of experience, however, reveals that properties "captured by the net" of RCRA jurisdiction have gone on to new, productive, and economically viable reuse. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is also a great potential for many more RCRA properties to do so.
In two major Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) opinions, United States v. Atlantic Research, Inc. and Burlington Northern & Santa Fe R.R. v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court provided long-sought guidance for parties litigating hazardous waste cleanup issues under CERCLA.
On May 4, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. United States. The decision is of major significance with respect to two areas of Superfund jurisprudence--"arranger" liability, and divisibility or apportionment of harm. This Article is concerned only with the latter issue and, moreover, only with one specific element of that issue.
This past May, the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time addressed two issues that the U.S. Congress left open in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). These issues are: (1) the scope of "generator" or "arranger" liability under the language of CERCLA §107(a)(3); and (2) the circumstances under which a liable party under §1073 may be held jointly and severally liable. Rejecting the position of the U.S.
The court holds that the equitable doctrine of successor liability applies under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). In 1941, a coke company sold its interest in a mineral processing company to a utility company and transferred the majority of its rema...
The court declines to dismiss a suit brought under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) by a company seeking to recover remediation costs from the previous owner of a contaminated site. The court reje...
The court holds that a city is not liable as an arranger under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for burying discarded barrels and drums at an airport, and cannot be held responsible for the medical monitoring costs of a firefighter exposed to hazardo...
The court denies a landowner's motion for partial summary judgment on claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (PaHSCA) against a wire rope manufacturer that previously owned a portion of the cont...
The court holds that a state may only recover from responsible private parties the nonarbitrary portions of response costs it incurred cleaning up lead-contaminated soils under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Minnesota Environmental Response...
The court holds that a husband and wife lacked standing under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to sue the developers of a benzene contaminated off...