A district court denied a waste hauling company's motion to dismiss a CERCLA suit filed against it for alleged soil and groundwater contamination contributed by its predecessor to a hazardous waste site in Chicago, Illinois. The company argued that the current owner of the site failed to sufficientl...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional portions of a 2012 law governing oil and gas operations in the Marcellus Shale. This is the second time the law, known as Act 13, has been reviewed by the court: in 2013, the court struck down provisions that limited the zoning powers of...

The Court of Federal Claims, in a case involving several claims arising out of the alleged federal mismanagement of tribal lands, held that CERCLA does not bar a tribe from seeking natural resource damages even though cleanup efforts at the site are not complete. The government argued CERCLA's bar o...

The Supreme Court of California held that the state's moratorium on the use of suction dredges to mine gold from rivers was not preempted by federal mining law. The case arose after an individual challenged his conviction for the possession and unpermitted use of a suction dredge. He argued that the...

The Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court decision that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must bear all the costs of deauthorizing the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO), instead holding that the Corps' cost-sharing formula with the state of Louisiana was reasonable. The Corps has completed buildin...

The Ninth Circuit held that a mining company that operates a smelter in Canada should not be held liable as an arranger under CERCLA for the release and threatened release of hazardous substances in the Upper Columbia River. The company could not be said to have "arranged" for the "disposal" of haza...

The Supreme Court of California held that the state may enter and conduct environmental and geological studies and testing on more than 150 privately owned properties in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that the state might seek to acquire for construction of two new tunnels to deliver fresh water f...

The Fifth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, directed the Louisiana Supreme Court to define the meaning of "good faith" as it pertains to an underlying whistleblower suit. A deckhand working for a tugboat company alleged he was repeatedly ordered to dump oil and otherwise violate environmental laws...