A district court denied a manufacturing company's motion to dismiss a landowner's state law claims against it for breach of contract and for waste, but granted the company's motion to dismiss the landowner's claims for cleanup costs under CERCLA and state law. Since 1972, the landowner has leased th...

The Sixth Circuit held that a Florida utility's lawsuit to recover cleanup costs it has incurred in connection with the release of hazardous substances at two manufactured gas plant sites is time barred under CERCLA. As a former owner of the site, the utility is a PRP even though it did not release ...

A district court upheld DOI's decision to withdraw more than one million acres of federal land adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Park from uranium mining. The withdrawal will close these lands to the exploration and development of uranium mining claims for 20 years, although mining of a few exis...

The Second Circuit affirmed in part and remanded in part a lower court decision holding the corporate successor to a utility's former parent company liable for a portion of costs incurred cleaning up coal tar contamination at manufactured gas plant sites in upstate New York. The lower court held the...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a consent decree under CERCLA requiring a PRP to pay $350,000, plus interest, in cleanup costs incurred at a former lead and silver mine site in Bonner County, Idaho. CERCLA authorizes the United States to settle with a PRP for an amount less than that PRP’s proportionate ...

The Ohio Supreme Court held that a mineral rights owner may be able to strip mine portions of a state wildlife area. The state and the mineral rights owner entered a contract granting the owner “all mineral rights, including rights of ingress and egress and reasonable surface right privileges.” ...

A district court issued a final order vacating BLM's and the U.S. Forest Service's approval of on-the-ground mining exploration activities in a part of western Colorado's North Fork Valley. The court previously held that the agencies violated NEPA when it approved the projects and enjoined interveni...

The Ninth Circuit held that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over environmental groups' citizen suit challenging the Montana Department of Environmental Quality's potential approval of a surface mining permit. The groups argued that the agency director would be in violation of SMCRA if she appro...

The Tenth Circuit held that an energy company may cross private property in order to develop new oil well sites under the property owner's surface estate as well as to access one of its existing wells located on adjacent BLM property. The only way to access the well on the BLM property is via a road...

The Eighth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a company's breach of contract and contribution claims against a railroad in connection with a lead-contaminated Superfund site in Omaha, Nebraska. The company paid approximately $200 million to settle its liability with the government, and the railroad set...