Mealey's Pollution Liability : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Pollution Liability

January 13, 2023
Expert In Oil Spill Case Is Qualified, Federal Judge Says In Win For Government

MOBILE, Ala. — A towing vessel owner who claims that the government is responsible for an oil spill from a barge lost its bid to exclude an expert witness, with an Alabama federal judge finding that the concerns raised “with regard to the proffered expert testimony goes to the weight of the testimony, not to its admissibility.”
January 13, 2023
Federal Judge Denies Cross-Motions In New York River Pollution Dispute

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A citizen environmental group’s letter sent to a recycling company requesting a copy of a stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP) cannot satisfy the Clean Water Act’s (CWA) 60-day notice requirement for failing to send the plan, a New York federal judge held in denying the company’s motion to dismiss and/or motion for judgment on the pleadings and the citizen group’s cross-motion for partial summary judgment and motion to strike an affirmation filed in support of the motion to dismiss.
January 10, 2023
Briefly: 5th Circuit Says Clean Water Permit For Pipeline Was Issued Properly

NEW ORLEANS — A panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for review sought by a group of shrimpers and fishermen related to a clean air permit dispute for a natural gas pipeline, ruling that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not act arbitrarily in its conclusions regarding the impact of pipeline construction on the environment and the need for compensatory mitigation.
January 10, 2023
La. Federal Judge: Oil Companies Were Not Under Direct Federal Control During WWII

LAKE CHARLES, La. — Oil companies operating in Louisiana during World War II were not under direct federal control but were simply complying with federal regulations, a Louisiana federal judge held in remanding state law environmental claims raised by a parish that was allegedly affected by the companies’ operations.
January 09, 2023
In New York, Buddhist Compound Beats Clean Water Act Citizen Suit

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has dismissed “broad” allegations that Dragon Springs Buddhist Inc. discharged wastewater and storm water containing unsafe levels of fecal coliform at a 393-acre Buddhist compound.
January 09, 2023
Summary Judgment Properly Granted On Extracontractual Claims In Pollution Dispute

DALLAS — A trial court did not err in granting a pollution liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment on an insured’s extracontractual claims because the insured failed to show that an issue of fact exists as to any lost benefits arising out of a gas leak or that it sustained an independent injury as a result of the insurer’s alleged bad faith conduct, the Fifth District Texas Court of Appeals said.
January 09, 2023
Farmer ‘Unambiguously’ Violated Consent Decree, 3rd Circuit Rules

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania did not err in rejecting a farmer’s motion to vacate or modify a decades-old consent decree barring the discharge of pollutants into protected wetlands because the farmer “unambiguously” violated the agreement, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 6.
January 09, 2023
CWA, Negligence Claims Survive In Dispute Over Lake Superior Pollution

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota has partly granted and partly rejected efforts by a wastewater treatment facility to obtain dismissal of allegations that it discharged pollutants into Lake Superior, harming a nearby park.
January 06, 2023
Federal Judge Denies Motion To Dismiss Defaulting Parties In CERCLA Dispute

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The owner of a former waste disposal facility where hazardous waste was disposed must show that it will not recover more in settlements than the cost to remediate the facility or seek dismissal against 288 defaulting defendants with prejudice, a federal judge in North Carolina held in denying the owner’s motion to dismiss the defendants without prejudice while granting it leave to refile its motion to dismiss.
January 04, 2023
Illinois Panel: Agreement For Diesel Spill Cleanup Only Partly Valid

CHICAGO — An Illinois appellate court will not disturb a lower court’s grant of summary judgment that an environmental remediation company is entitled to payment for diesel cleanup work it did at the scene of a spill on the day the spill occurred.
January 03, 2023
New Mexico Federal Judge Dismisses Dry-Cleaner’s CERCLA Contribution Claims

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A dry-cleaning operator failed to plead its counterclaims in “short, plain statements,” failed to allege sufficient facts on some of its third-party claims and was barred under New Mexico law from bringing third-party claims against a deceased pumper truck operator’s community property estate for allegedly dumping perchloroethylene (PCE) contaminated materials that entered the local water supply, a New Mexico judge held in granting two municipalities’ motion to dismiss the operator’s cross-claims and third-party claims for contribution under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Las Cruces, et al. v. American Linen of New Mexico Inc, et al. v. Estate of Jesus Tereso Villanueva, et al., No. 17-809, D. N.M., 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 225834).
January 03, 2023
Insurer Must Pay Insureds’ Defense Costs Incurred In Environmental Suits

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge said that an insurer must pay defense costs incurred by its insureds in underlying environmental contamination lawsuits because the insurer has a duty to defend the insureds and the insurer’s intent to appeal the court’s ruling on the duty-to-defend issue does not provide a basis for the insurer’s refusal to pay the defense costs.
January 03, 2023
City Pays Yakama Nation $295,000 To Settle CERCLA Litigation

YAKIMA, Wash. — A federal judge in Washington has entered a judgment in favor of the Confederate Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation in their dispute with the city of Yakima over contamination at a former municipal landfill.
December 28, 2022
Owner Of Former Gas Station Will Face RCRA Citizen Suit In New York

NEW YORK — A motion to dismiss an action over gasoline contamination has been denied by a New York federal judge, who said that a remedial action work plan (RAWP) entered into by the owner of a former gas station does not moot the plaintiff’s claims.
December 28, 2022
In PFAS Case, 11th Circuit Affirms: No Municipal Immunity For Nuisance Claim

ATLANTA — A federal judge in Georgia did not err in rejecting an attempt by the operator of a wastewater treatment system to invoke its municipal immunity in response to a request for nuisance abatement, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has concluded.
December 20, 2022
Valero Prevails On Tort Claims By Rancher; Court Says No Evidence Of Leak

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A federal judge in Oklahoma has granted Valero summary judgment, concluding that a rancher’s evidence that a 12-inch pipeline under the ranch leaked petroleum into the soil, water and air “is too speculative for res ipsa loquitur to apply.”
December 19, 2022
Derivative Liability Claim Under CERCLA Trimmed By Tennessee Federal Judge

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — Allegations of direct liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act will proceed against an aluminum recycler that disposed of salt cake and baghouse dust at a Maury County, Tenn., landfill, but a nearby property owner’s theory of derivative liability will be limited to post-2009 conduct, a federal judge in Tennessee ruled.
December 16, 2022
Oregon, Monsanto Reach $698M Deal To Resolve PCB Pollution In Groundwater, Soil

PORTLAND, Ore. — The state of Oregon and Monsanto Co. on Dec. 15 reached an agreement under which the company will pay $698 million for damages related to contamination in the state’s groundwater and soil connected to Monsanto’s manufacturing of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
December 15, 2022
Federal Judge: Investigating Potential Remediation Doesn’t Moot Pollution Claims

TRENTON, N.J. — An operator of a titanium dioxide plant’s investigation of potential remediation of its own pollution with a state agency is not enough to moot two environmental groups’ claims alleging violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) brought against the plant operator and does not justify a stay of the groups’ lawsuit, a New Jersey federal judge said in finding that the court should maintain jurisdiction over the suit.
December 14, 2022
Oil Companies Ask High Court To Decide If Federal Law Rules Climate Change Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel deepened two circuit splits on issues of removal jurisdiction and “transboundary emissions” and misinterpreted federal law when it affirmed a district court’s order remanding climate change allegations based on claims of nuisance and trespass raised by Rhode Island to state court, a group of oil companies argues in their petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S Supreme Court.
December 13, 2022
California Panel: Injunction On Cleanup, Abatement Order Is Warranted

LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court has ruled that the California Regional Water Quality Control Board is entitled to relief that would direct parties who provided steel drum recycling and auto salvage services to comply with the terms of a cleanup and abatement order (CAO) issued more than a decade ago.
December 13, 2022
Tenant Won’t Be Added To CWA Case Against Port Of Vancouver

TACOMA, Wash. — A federal judge in Washington has turned away an environmental advocacy group’s request to join a stevedoring company in an action alleging illicit discharges by Port of Vancouver USA.
December 12, 2022
On Remand, Calif. Federal Jury Says Industrial Clay Mixer Polluted Nearby Creek

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Following remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal in light of an intervening U.S. Supreme Court decision, a federal jury in California determined that an industrial clay mixer violated its general permit and the Clean Water Act (CWA) by discharging polluted stormwater into Temescal Creek near its facility.
December 12, 2022
Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Underlying Wastewater Discharge Suits

JACKSON, Miss. — A directors and officers liability insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify its insureds in underlying lawsuits alleging that the insureds illegally discharged wastewater into city sewage treatment facilities because the policy’s pollution exclusion clearly bars coverage, a Mississippi federal judge said in granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
December 12, 2022
No Coverage Due For Water Pollution Pursuant To Pollution Exclusion, Judge Says

ROME, Ga. — A Georgia federal judge determined that an insurer owes no coverage for a suit alleging that an insured’s operations caused waterways and drinking water to become polluted because the policies’ total pollution exclusion clearly bars coverage.