The Washington Supreme Court held that the state's Ocean Resources Management Act (ORMA) applies to two bulk liquid storage companies' oil terminal expansions on the shores of Gray Harbor. The two companies applied to expand their bulk liquid storage terminals to allow for the receipt, storage, and ...

A Washington State appellate court held that the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) can be held liable as an "owner or operator" under the state Model Toxic Control Act (MTCA) at the Port Gamble Bay and Mill site. The Department of Ecology determined that activities at the site between 1853...

The Tenth Circuit reversed a district court ruling that barred a mining company from pursuing a CERCLA contribution claim for the Lower Silver Creek/Richardson Flat site because of representations it made to a bankruptcy court concerning its settlement agreement with EPA. In 2009, as part of a Chapt...

A district court, on cross-motions for summary judgment, held that a utility company should not be held liable under CERCLA for the release of hazardous substances on two properties owned by an energy company. The energy company brought this action under CERCLA to recover cleanup costs it incurred i...

A district court denied as untimely a newspaper’s motion to intervene in a case involving a 27-year-old CERCLA action. The newspaper claimed it had, under state law, the right to information related to confidential settlement negotiations that took place between the U.S. government and a mining co...

A district court held that a manufacturing company is entitled to $1.7 million in litigation costs from its insurer in an underlying 2003 lawsuit concerning hazardous waste contamination at one of the company's properties stemming from the 1950s. The insurer alleged that the property damage occurred...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that the Hawaii Pesticides Law impliedly preempts a county ordinance that seeks to regulate pesticides and genetically engineered plants. The ordinance would have required commercial farmers to maintain “buffer zones” between crops to which pesti...

The Federal Claims Court held that DOE owes an energy company nearly $34.5 million in damages for failing to perform its contractual obligations to remove spent nuclear fuel from a nuclear power plant in New York. The court granted all of the company's claims except for the Part 171 NRC fees, the re...

The Federal Claims Court held that DOE owes an energy company $13.8 million in damages for failing to perform its contractual obligations to remove spent nuclear fuel from a nuclear power plant in Covert, Michigan. The court found in favor of the the company with respect to its claims for costs rela...

A district court held that RCRA gives it the authority to grant a golf course's request for mandatory injunctive relief against a company to stop further contamination and to remediate past contamination, even though the company has already entered into a consent decree with the state environmental ...