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

Mealey's Pollution Liability

December 12, 2022
Price Anderson Act Case Against Honeywell Survives Dismissal Bid

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. — A city and county in Illinois adequately plead that Honeywell International Inc. emitted air laced with radiation and other toxic materials that caused property loss and damages, a federal judge in Illinois has ruled.
December 12, 2022
Nuisance Claim Over Gas Well Tossed, CERCLA, RCRA Claims Survive

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Finding no evidence of injury, a federal judge in West Virginia on Dec. 9 said claims of nuisance and negligence against the owner of a natural gas well and pipeline on a plaintiff’s property fail.
December 08, 2022
Argument In Reinsurer’s Appeal Over All-Sums Allocation Focuses On English Ruling

NEW YORK — In oral argument before a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel, parties in a suit over all-sums allocation of an environmental claims settlement under a reinsurance contract disputed how to interpret an English ruling and whether that ruling applies to the case at hand.
December 08, 2022
8th Circuit Petitioned To Rehear Greenhouse Gas Calculation Case

ST. LOUIS — Thirteen states are urging the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to rehear their recent determination that a challenge to President Joseph Biden’s reestablishment of the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG) fails for lack of standing.
December 08, 2022
Tenn. Federal Judge Dismisses Contamination Claims Addressed In Consent Order

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — A property owner’s Clean Water Act (CWA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) claims brought against the operator of a neighboring landfill “do not respect the limited role of the citizen suit,” a Tennessee federal judge held in partially granting the operator’s motion for summary judgment and completely denying the claims as precluded by a consent order that was negotiated between the state and the landfill operator that resolved the contamination caused by the landfill.
December 07, 2022
5th Circuit Won’t Rehear Oil Companies’ Challenge To Remand Of Wetlands Row

NEW ORLEANS — An October determination that allegations that the oil and gas industry contributed to the deterioration of wetlands belong in Louisiana state court will not be revisited, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.
December 06, 2022
Washington Federal Judge Stays Seattle Waterway Contamination Dispute Until 2023

SEATTLE — A temporary stay of a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act contribution action brought by the port of Seattle against Boeing to determine both parties’ share of liability for the contamination of the Lower Duwamish Waterway (LDW) would allow other potentially responsible parties to continue the ongoing settlement negotiations regarding their own liability, which could collapse without the stay, a Washington federal judge held in granting Boeing’s motion to stay the action/
December 05, 2022
30 Oil Companies Petition Supreme Court Over Remand Of Climate Change Claims

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel exacerbated two circuit splits on issues of removal jurisdiction and “transboundary emissions” and misinterpreted federal law when it remanded to state court climate change allegations based on claims of nuisance and trespass raised by six California municipalities, 30 oil companies argue in their petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S Supreme Court.
December 05, 2022
Court Rejects Bid By U.S. For Reconsideration Of Denied Motion To Dismiss

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Court of Federal Claims is standing by its July decision to deny a request by the federal government for dismissal of breach of contract claims leveled over contamination of a Novato, Calif., parcel by the U.S. Navy.
December 05, 2022
Panel: Testing, Remediation Plans At Contaminated Site Are Not Inadequate

LOS ANGELES — Efforts by a group of Pasadena citizens to halt a mixed-use project on a site with a history of contamination by the military were correctly rejected, the Second District California Court of Appeal ruled Dec. 2.
December 01, 2022
In Gold King Mine MDL, Theories Of CERCLA Liability Are Rejected

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Nearly three months after it was awarded judgment on the pleadings on claims of negligence in a case over the Gold King Mine blowout, a government contractor has won dismissal in New Mexico federal court of allegations that it is liable for contamination of the Animas and San Juan rivers as a transporter of impounded water.
November 29, 2022
Final Settlement Approval Granted, Consent Decree Entered In E-Waste Case

PHOENIX — In two recent orders, a federal judge in Arizona said that a combined $2 million in settlement payments by entities that arranged for the transport of e-waste to a “sham” recycling facility that stockpiled and abandoned the waste are procedurally and substantively fair.
November 29, 2022
New York Seeks Injunction Over Air Quality Violations By Shale Aggregate Plant

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Letitia James has moved for a preliminary injunction while her litigation with a shale aggregate plant proceeds, maintaining that the defendant’s refusal to adequately respond to monitoring data is negatively impacting the quality of life of neighboring communities.
November 28, 2022
5 Years In, Stay Of Utah Contribution Claims Remains In Place

SALT LAKE CITY — A bid by American Smelting and Refining Co. LLC (ASARCO) to lift a stay of its lawsuit seeking contribution toward $8.7 million spent remediating a former mine near Park City, Utah, failed Nov. 23, when a federal judge in Utah said that despite delays, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has made “progress” and should be allowed to complete a remediation plan.
November 28, 2022
Petroleum Companies Granted Extra Time To Challenge Summary Judgment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has granted an unopposed motion for an extension of time for two petroleum companies to seek reconsideration of a recent summary judgment ruling in their breach of contract action against the federal government over aviation gasoline and butadiene production during World War II.
November 23, 2022
D.C. Federal Judge Remands Climate Change Case, Then Issues Stay

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia remanded a climate change lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. and others to the District of Columbia Superior Court but just two days later granted an emergency motion for a temporary stay while the defendants prepare a formal motion to stay remand pending appeal.
November 22, 2022
In California PCB Case, $537.5 Million Settlement Wins Final Approval

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California who repeatedly refused to sign off on a settlement of allegations Monsanto Co. and others contaminated waterways with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has granted final approval of an agreement that will see the defendants pay more than $500 million to more than 2,000 stormwater system operators.
November 21, 2022
Amicus Group Says State’s PCB Case Is An ‘Unwarranted Expansion’ Of Law

WILMINGTON, Del. — In an amicus curiae brief filed Nov. 18, a professional association representing manufacturers says the Delaware Supreme Court should reject as “the unwarranted expansion of public nuisance law” an appeal by the state, which seeks to hold Monsanto Co. liable for contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
November 21, 2022
Petitioner Seeks Review Of Governmental Immunity Holding In Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — A petition filed with the Texas Supreme Court says an appeals court wrongly applied an exclusion for “solid or dissolved materials in domestic sewage” in declaring the city of Midland, Texas, immune from suit over the disposal of trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (perc) in a municipal sewer system.
November 21, 2022
Texas Panel: Vineyard, Crop Damage Is Damage To Real Property

BEAUMONT, Texas — A lawsuit by 57 vineyard owners and four grape processors over alleged design defects in an herbicide that migrated must proceed in the individual counties where the vineyards and grapevines are located, a Texas appellate court has ruled.
November 17, 2022
$80M Porsche Fuel Economy, Emissions Class Settlement Granted Final Approval

SAN FRANCISCO — An $80 million class settlement ending a consolidated complaint alleging that certain models of Porsche vehicles had worse fuel economy and emissions than the vehicle makers represented to consumers was granted final approval by a federal judge in California.
November 16, 2022
Environmental Groups Oppose Rehearing Of 5th Circuit’s Emission Penalty Affirmance

NEW ORLEANS — Adoption of arguments by a group of Exxon entities would create a circuit split on standing for the purposes of the Clean Air Act (CAA), two environmental groups argue in their opposition to the Exxon entities’ petition to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for rehearing en banc of the court’s affirmance of a $14.25 million penalty imposed on Exxon for emitting pollutants from one of its Texas facilities.
November 16, 2022
9th Circuit: United States Can Seek Cleanup Cost Recovery From Oil Companies

PORTLAND, Ore. — The United States can seek cost recovery under Section 107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act from several oil companies for non-benzol sulfuric acid waste cleanup costs incurred at a site that was polluted with aviation gas (avgas) byproducts, despite voluntarily incurring some of those costs, because the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals previously held that the United States was not liable for the non-benzol costs at the site, a Ninth Circuit panel held in affirming a trial court’s grant of summary judgment.
November 15, 2022
Homeowners, Developers Reach Agreement In Shipyard Cleanup Case

SAN FRANCISCO — A putative class of residents and a developer accused of excavating a former naval shipyard with insufficient dust or particulate mitigation efforts in place have given notice to a federal judge in California that they have resolved their dispute.
November 14, 2022
Insurers Denied Summary Judgment; Cause Of Contamination Is Unknown

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge denied motions for summary judgment filed by two insurers in an environmental contamination coverage dispute because it is not clear whether the pollution exclusion included in one of the insurers’ policies bars coverage as it is not known whether the contamination was caused by an occurrence or accident as required by the policies.