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Mealey's Pollution Liability

April 27, 2023
Wash. Federal Judge: Contract Clause Doesn’t Bar Saturn V Rocket Cleanup Claims

SEATTLE — A hold-harmless provision within a contract between an aviation company that worked on the Saturn V Rocket program and NASA does not bar the United States’ Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act claims brought against Boeing, which took on the contractor’s liabilities, for environmental cleanup of a site where testing of the rocket occurred, a Washington federal judge found in denying Boeing’s motion to dismiss the complaint in its entirety.
April 27, 2023
Injunction Denied In New Jersey CWA Case Over Drip Irrigation

CAMDEN, N.J. — A lawsuit against a New Jersey town over alleged overuse of a drip irrigation system, which has resulted in discharges of treated liquid waste onto nearby properties, will proceed without a preliminary injunction in place, a federal judge ruled.
April 25, 2023
Supreme Court Won’t Decide Whether Climate Change Claims Should Be Remanded

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 24 denied five petitions brought by oil companies seeking to prevent the remand to state court of claims brought by various state and local governments alleging that the companies contributed to global climate change.
April 24, 2023
5th Circuit Refuses To Let Environmental Groups Intervene In Air Quality Row

NEW ORLEANS — Three environmental groups cannot intervene in a judicial review of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency final rule that says multiple states have inadequate state implementation plans (SIPs) to comply with the 2015 eight-hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) because the groups have the same objective as the EPA and failed to show inadequate representation, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in denying the groups’ motion to intervene.
April 24, 2023
Pa. High Court: Property Owners Are Eligible For Cost Of Remediating Fuel Release

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A plain reading of the Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Act (STSPA) does not show that two property owners were required to pay registration fees before discovering a diesel fuel release from a storage tank to be eligible for reimbursement of the costs they incurred in removing five tanks and contaminated soil from their property, the majority of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found in affirming a lower court’s decision.
April 24, 2023
Panel Agrees: Case Against Ford Over Fuel Economy Data Is Preempted

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 21 affirmed a determination by a Michigan federal judge that state law claims of breach of contract and fraud leveled against Ford Motor Co. in connection with false fuel economy data are preempted by federal law.
April 20, 2023
Calif. Federal Judge Enters Judgment On Liability In Dry-Cleaning Pollution Case

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Following a bench trial on liability, a California federal judge filed an entry of judgment against a financial group, stating that the group is liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and California’s Hazardous Substances Account Act (HSAA) for response costs incurred by a California state agency in remediating a site that was previously occupied by a dry-cleaning business and is now owned by the group.
April 18, 2023
Pa. Federal Judge: Summary Judgment Is Premature In Industrial Pollution Dispute

PHILADELPHIA — Noting that discovery has been open for only seven months, a Pennsylvania federal judge said there are too many open questions to grant a steel drum company’s motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of successor liability for cost recovery and contribution claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act brought by an unincorporated group of companies that worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up a former industrial site.
April 17, 2023
Navajo Nation Claim For Damages Over Mine Blowout Not Preempted By CERCLA

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The limitations on natural resource damages set forth in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) apply to Indian tribes, a federal judge in New Mexico has concluded.
April 14, 2023
Bench Trial Completed In Dispute Over Migration Of Contaminants From Pipeline

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A bench trial was held over a property owner’s claims that contaminants from a natural gas well and pipeline migrated onto her property one week after a West Virginia federal judge dismissed as moot four motions in limine filed by the operator of the well and pipeline that sought to exclude evidence of the damages for claims that had previously been dismissed.
April 13, 2023
Calif. Federal Judge Grants, Denies Summary Judgment In Landfill Contamination Row

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California county was denied summary judgment on claims of nuisance, trespass and contribution under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act brought against it by the city of Lincoln, Calif., for the alleged contamination of groundwater via hazardous waste dumped at a landfill, but was granted summary judgment on its counterclaim for contribution under CERCLA.
April 12, 2023
Environmental Groups: CWA Citizen Suit Was Correctly Reinstated

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three environmental groups maintain that a petition for a writ of certiorari that asks the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the circumstances in which citizen suits under the Clean Water Act (CWA) are precluded by state environmental regulatory action should be denied because it presents an overly broad question.
April 11, 2023
N.Y. Federal Judge Partially Dismisses Cross-Claims In Lake Contamination Dispute

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — In partially granting an oil company’s motion to dismiss cross-claims raised by a group of defendants over the company’s release of petroleum and other hazardous substances into Onondaga Lake, a New York federal judge found that the defendants’ fraudulent inducement claim was barred by the statute of limitations and their breach of contract claim was not proper under the terms of a settlement agreement between the parties.
April 11, 2023
4th Circuit: Consent Decree Required Mining Company To Renew NPDES Permits

RICHMOND, Va. — Courts are allowed to consider the circumstances surrounding consent decrees when interpreting them, the majority of a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming a trial court’s order finding that two mining companies failed to comply with a consent decree they entered into with the United States because they let their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits lapse.
April 11, 2023
Federal Judge Grants Partial Summary Judgment In Truck Emissions Class Action

FLINT, Mich. — A Michigan federal judge partially granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the designer and manufacturer of Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 diesel trucks on various federal and state law claims brought by a putative nationwide class that claims that the trucks discharged more emissions than expected despite being advertised as “clean.”
April 11, 2023
Interlocutory Appeal Of Pollution Exclusion Ruling Not Warranted

HOUSTON — A Texas federal magistrate judge recommended denying a commercial general liability’s insurer’s motion for interlocutory appeal of a recent ruling that the insurer’s pollution exclusion does not bar coverage for a multidistrict litigation suit alleging that the insured’s sand-mining business contributed to the flooding sustained during Hurricane Harvey because the insurer failed to demonstrate that the ruling presents a controlling question of law that must be addressed.
April 10, 2023
Federal Judge Reschedules Summary Judgment Hearing In Fire Retardant Dispute

MISSOULA, Mont. — A Montana federal judge rescheduled a summary judgment hearing that was originally set in a previous order denying a motion to intervene filed by a collection of municipalities and business groups which sought to participate as defendants alongside the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), which a nonprofit alleges is violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) by aerially deploying a fire retardant to fight wildfires.
April 10, 2023
Massachusetts Federal Judge: Oil Hazard Not Reported, So Liability Not Limited

BOSTON — The United States was awarded partial summary judgment by a Massachusetts federal judge that the owner of a tugboat that ran aground may not now limit its liability for an ensuing oil spill.
April 06, 2023
In Wisconsin Cost-Recovery Action Over Coke Plant Cleanup, Plaintiff Prevails

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Under the terms of a liquidation agreement signed six decades ago, a defendant company “expressly agreed” to assume liability for costs associated with the cleanup of a contaminated coke and gas plant in Milwaukee, a federal magistrate judge in Wisconsin concluded.
April 06, 2023
CERCLA Claims Tossed; Spoliation Sanctions Will Be Issued In New York

UTICA, N.Y. — Although stopping short of selecting a sanction, a federal judge in New York has agreed with defendants that spoliation sanctions are indeed warranted in a longstanding dispute over the cleanup of a former metal recycling plant.
March 31, 2023
United States Files CERCLA And Clean Water Act Claims Over Ohio Train Derailment

CLEVELAND — The United States sued Norfolk Southern Corp. on March 31 for civil penalties and response costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, alleging that the company violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by discharging oil and hazardous substances into waters of the United States when its train derailed near East Palestine, Ohio.
March 31, 2023
Panel: Gas Station Owners Not Jointly, Severally Liable For Water Contamination

DENVER — A Colorado appellate panel on March 30 affirmed a lower court’s ruling on liability for one defendant in a groundwater contamination case, but the panel reversed the lower court’s decision, which had held that the current owner and a previous owner of the property were jointly and severally liable for damages caused by toxic substances that leaked from underground storage tanks onto a nearby property.
March 29, 2023
Some Defenses Raised By Monsanto Tossed, Others Survive In PCB Case

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington ruled that the primary jurisdiction doctrine does not bar a lawsuit by Seattle over polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination of the Lower Duwamish River.
March 29, 2023
No Coverage Owed For Fuel Oil Spill At Insureds’ Home, N.Y. Justice Says

PORT EDWARD, N.Y. — Insureds’ claims for breach of contract and bad faith alleged against their property insurer cannot proceed because the policy’s pollution exclusion bars coverage for the damages and remediation costs incurred following an oil spill at the insureds’ home, a New York Supreme Court justice determined.
March 27, 2023
Panel: Energy Companies Must Defend Climate Change Claims In State Court

ST. LOUIS — Citing a growing consensus among its sister circuits, the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a Minnesota federal judge’s remand of allegations that the energy industry misled consumers about the association fossil fuels and climate change.