A district court dismissed, with leave to amend, a dry cleaning business owner's CERCLA claims against a water company for soil and groundwater contamination. The owner alleged that the water company's operation of a nearby well led to the release of perchloroethylene (PCE). But the complaint does n...

A district court held that the Virgin Islands may go forward with its suit to recover response costs it incurred responding to the release of hazardous substances at a former alumina facility. Under CERCLA, at least some costs must be incurred prior to the start of litigation in order for a plaintif...

The Second Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court decision dismissing as time barred New York's CERCLA claims against several defendants for costs a town incurred investigating and addressing groundwater contamination stemming from the New Cassel Industrial Area. The lower court held that the st...

A district court issued an injunction ordering the U.S. Forest Service to prohibit industrial equipment—known as "mega-loads"—headed for the Alberta Sands from being transported along a highway that runs through the Nez Perce Reservation and the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest until certain...

The Third Circuit affirmed a lower court decision vacating a 2009 settlement agreement between the U.S. Forest Service and environmental groups that banned oil and gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest pending the completion of a multi-year, forestwide EIS under NEPA. The lower court had pre...

A district court held that BLM complied with NEPA and FLPMA when it authorized a uranium mining project in south central Wyoming. BLM, in conjunction with other state and federal agencies, undertook extensive and exhaustive reviews of the potential environmental impacts of the project, and the agenc...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that insurers had no duty to defend or indemnify an oil refinery in an underlying CERCLA lawsuit filed against it by EPA. EPA sent the refinery a letter in 2001 notifying it that it was a PRP. Because EPA's allegations in the letter arguably fell wi...

The Ninth Circuit held that an insurance company breached its duty to defend a trucking equipment company when it refused to provide a defense after the company received letters from EPA notifying it of its potential liability under CERCLA for environmental contamination at the Portland Harbor Super...

The Third Circuit held that a PRP that entered into a consent decree resolving its state-law liability with the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in connection with contamination at an industrial facility may seek contribution under CERCLA from a second PRP. The court held that CERCLA §113(f)(3)(B) does...

The Third Circuit, in a case involving a contaminated site in New Jersey, affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision finding the former owner of the site liable to the current owner under CERCLA but not RCRA. The lower court ruled that the current owner's claim for injunctive relie...