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RCRA Subtitle I: The Federal Underground Storage Tank Program

Editors' Summary: Congress first addressed the problem of leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) in 1984, by enacting Subtitle I of RCRA. The UST regulatory program addresses, inter alia, corrosion protection, reporting, corrective action, and financial responsibility. In this Article, the author provides an overview of the federal UST program. The author outlines the program's significant elements and explores specific regulations in the context of the technical problems they are intended to address, giving particular attention to how, to what, and to whom the regulations apply.

Federal-State Decisionmaking on Water: Applying Lessons Learned

Water policy in the United States has been significantly influenced in recent years by a number of high-profile environmental and water use conflicts, including disputes relating to California's Bay Delta, Florida's Everglades, the management of the Colorado River system, the Columbia/Snake system, and the Klamath and Trinity River Basins. For a variety of legal, institutional, and financial reasons, the federal government has played a major role in all of these matters, typically in partnership with state and local stakeholders.

Critical Mass Energy Project v. NRC

The court rules that Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act shields from public disclosure comprehensive reports, prepared and provided to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by a nonprofit consortium of the nuclear utility industry, concerning the safety and reliability of operations at n...

Diamond Waste, Inc. v. Monroe County

The court holds that a landfill operator is entitled to a preliminary injunction prohibiting enforcement of a county ordinance that regulates the transport of out-of-county waste into the county, and the operator may proceed on procedural and substantive due process claims against the county. The co...

Bituminous Casualty Corp. v. Vacuum Tanks, Inc.

The court holds that an insurer does not have the duty to defend a policyholder against a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) claim where evidence of the policies' existence is available, but where evidence of the policies' terms was not presented despite a...

Clajon Prod. Corp. v. Petera

The court holds that Wyoming hunting license regulations do not violate the Takings and Equal Protection Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The regulations create separate pools for allocating licenses to residents and nonresidents and limit owners of 160 or more acres to two supplemental licenses. T...

Cook v. Rockwell Int'l Corp.

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...

Carmel-by-the-Sea, City of v. Department of Transp.

The court holds that most of the final environmental impact statement (EIS) for a proposed highway realignment through Hatton Canyon near Carmel-by-the-Sea in California satisfies the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The court then address...

Minnesota Ctr. for Envtl. Advocacy v. Holsten

A Minnesota appellate court upheld an EIS for a steel plant against claims that it failed to address the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and power generation. The environmental group's claims that the state environmental agency failed to consider the impacts of greenhouse gas emi...

In re Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether Prods. Liab. Litig.

A district court held that evidence of an oil company's conduct presented at a trial concerning methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) groundwater contamination in New York is insufficient as a matter of law to establish the degree of maliciousness, recklessness, or wanton conduct to support an award of...