Commonwealth v. Spangler
A Pennsylvania court affirmed a lower court order granting the Pennsylvania Department of the Environment's (PaDEP's) petition to investigate, remediate, and clean up contamination on private property under the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (HSCA). The property became contaminated after a...
Morristown Assocs. v. Grant Oil Co.
The New Jersey Supreme Court held that the general six-year statute of limitations for injury to real property does not apply to private claims for contribution made pursuant to the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act (Spill Act). The case arose after a commercial property owner sought to ...
Power Fuels, LLC v. Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Comm'n
The Fourth Circuit held that a Virginia facility that stores and blends coal for a nearby power plant is subject to the Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA's) jurisdiction under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. The Mine Act covers operators of a "coal or other mine," includi...
American Farm Bureau Federation v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
A district court held that livestock farm groups lack standing to bar EPA from releasing their members' personal information—including the physical address and other operational details about the farms—in response to environmental groups' FOIA requests for information about concentrated animal f...
Black Mesa Water Coalition v. Jewell
The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court decision denying environmental groups' request for attorneys fees after they successfully challenged OSM's grant of a coal mining permit revision. Below, the groups' lawsuit was consolidated with other actions challenging the permit revision, which was ultima...