The Tenth Circuit held that a mining company has the right to recover cleanup costs at a Superfund site because the U.S. government was an owner under the statute. Over the last century, the mining company and its corporate predecessors mined molybdenum at a site near Questa, New Mexico. The mining ...

A district court held that an agriculture company cannot pursue Superfund cost recovery against Spokane, Washington, over polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination in the Spokane River. The company produced PCBs from 1935 to 1970 that the city of Spokane claimed contributed to the impairment of t...

A district court held that a mining company will not face CERCLA liability as a successor to another company because there was no overlap in ownership. The mining company and a lumber company purchased adjacent lots from an industrial company whose subsidiary operated a zinc and lead mine on what is...

The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, held that the United States is not liable under CERCLA for hazardous waste contamination at a former mine site in Idaho. A district court held the owners of the site liable for EPA's and the U.S. Forest Service's cleanup costs at the site, and the owners...

A district court found that an Indiana Superfund law allows for contribution claims even though the law does not directly reference them. In 2013, a hardware manufacturing company was found liable by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) for releases of hazardous substances on an...

A Pennsylvania court denied an insurer's motion for summary judgment, holding that it had no obligation to defend or indemnify toxic waste claims against its policyholder that occurred after the end of its policy. The policyholder was insured by the defendant from 1969 to 1979. In 2010, the Pennsylv...

A Pennsylvania court denied an insurer's motion for summary judgment, holding that it had no obligation to defend or indemnify toxic waste claims against its policyholder that occurred after the end of its policy. The policyholder was insured by the defendant from 1969 to 1979. In 2010, the Pennsylv...

The D.C. Circuit vacated an EPA final rule that exempted farms from reporting requirements for air releases from animal waste. In 2008 the EPA issued a final rule that generally exempts farms from CERCLA and EPCRA reporting requirements for air releases from animal waste, reasoning that the reports ...