Newark Group, Inc. v. Dopaco, Inc.
A district court held that a property owner may go forward with its RCRA claims against a former tenant that stored toluene in a building on the site. The owner demolished all but the basement floor of the building. High concentrations of methane gas exist under the building due to degrading toluene...
Wilder Corp. of Delaware v. Thompson Drainage & Levee District
The Seventh Circuit held that a landowner who sold a large parcel of floodplain property to a conservation group may not ask a local drainage district to indemnify him for damages he incurred in an underlying breach of warranty suit stemming from petroleum contamination on the property. The landowne...
Raritan Baykeeper v. NL Industries, Inc.
The Third Circuit vacated a lower court decision dismissing, on grounds of abstention, environmental groups' RCRA and CWA citizens suit in which they sought an injunction requiring the current and prior owners of a contaminated site to remediate contaminated sediments in the Raritan River. The group...
Russell County Sportsmen v. United States Forest Service
The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court decision invalidating the U.S. Forest Service's 2007 travel management plan for parts of the Lewis and Clark National Forest. Nothing in the Montana Wilderness Study Act of 1977, which requires the Service to manage a wilderness study area so as to "maintain"...
Sierra Club v. Jackson
A district court denied EPA's motion to dismiss an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the Agency's administrative stay of two rules setting forth hazardous air emission standards for boilers and commercial and industrial solid waste incineration units. EPA argued that the court lacked jurisdi...