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...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's denial of a petition filed by 101 environmental groups asking the Agency to regulate spent lead bullets and shot under TSCA. EPA rejected the petition as “non-cognizable” under TSCA §21 on the grounds that it largely duplicated an earlier petition that two of the 1...

The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld an administrative law judge's (ALJ's) award of benefits in the death of an oil-tank worker. According to the medical examiner's report, the worker died from hydrocarbon poisoning due to the inhalation of petroleum vapors from oil storage tanks. His employer argu...

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...

A district court, in a 120-page decision, dismissed claims that the U.S. Navy negligently exposed a child to thallium dust during its cleanup of a contaminated landfill site. The child's family, which lived next to the site, alleged that wind-blown dust migrated to their yard and home and caused her...

A district court denied an oil company's motion to amend the findings, alter the judgment, or order a new trial in the Deepwater Horizon case in which the court found the company grossly negligent in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The company argued that it repeatedly objected to expert witness ...