Mealey's Pollution Liability
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April 26, 2024
Chemical Producer Fails To Invoke Federal Jurisdiction In Statewide Pollution Row
TRENTON, N.J. — Federal jurisdiction is not proper over claims brought by the New Jersey attorney general and a state agency against a chemical producer for its alleged contamination of the state’s natural resources with carcinogenic chemicals because the claims are based exclusively on state law, a New Jersey federal judge found in remanding the case to state court.
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April 25, 2024
Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Claims Based On Release Of Pollutants
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify its insured against underlying counterclaims in an environmental contamination coverage dispute because the policies’ pollution exclusion clearly bars coverage for the counterclaims, which are based on the release of threatened release of pollutants as defined in the policies at issue, a West Virginia federal judge said in granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
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April 24, 2024
Panel: Environmental Agency May Sue For Water Pollution Despite Prior Agreement
TRENTON, N.J. — In an unpublished opinion, a state appellate panel in New Jersey reversed and remanded a groundwater contamination case, ruling that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) did not forfeit its right to sue chemical companies as a result of a prior consent order to remediate the hazard.
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April 24, 2024
Majority Of Louisiana Panel Affirms Dismissal Of Oil And Gas Contamination Claims
BATON ROUGE, La. — The owner of a large tract of land that was previously used for oil and gas drilling is not entitled to recover claims for breach of implied obligations against a company that worked on the land because Louisiana environmental law limits the amount of damages such plaintiffs can recover, the majority of a Louisiana appeals court panel found in affirming the trial court’s judgment.
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April 24, 2024
Statute Of Repose Bars Chemical Spill Tort Claims, Kansas Federal Judge Says
WICHITA, Kan. — Tort claims brought by a group of local residents whose property was allegedly contaminated by migrating chemicals that originated at an industrial railroad site are barred by the applicable 10-year statute of repose for property damage claims because the original spills occurred several decades ago, a Kansas federal judge found in partly granting the railroad company’s motion to dismiss.
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April 23, 2024
New York Federal Judge Dismisses More Landfill Claims For Failure To Prosecute
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A New York federal judge granted a motion to dismiss claims brought by a man who said the operation of a nearby landfill violated the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) because the man failed to prosecute the case for several years.
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April 22, 2024
New EPA Final Rule Will List 2 PFAS As Hazardous Substances Under CERCLA
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency announced April 19 that it will soon finalize a rule that will add two widely used per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the list of hazardous substances covered by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
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April 22, 2024
Missouri Federal Judge Stays Nuclear Waste Dispute Pending 8th Circuit Decision
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge stayed an action arising from alleged property damage caused by nuclear waste from two landfills because the central issue of what standard of care applies to public liability actions under the Price-Anderson Act (PAA) is pending before the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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April 18, 2024
Wash. Federal Judge Won’t Reconsider Order Denying Cultural Damages Under CERCLA
SPOKANE, Wash. — A Washington federal judge denied a motion to reconsider an order holding that the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation are not entitled to cultural resource damages arising from a smelter’s alleged disposal of millions of tons of toxic slag and liquid effluent into the Columbia River because such damages are not available under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
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April 17, 2024
Panel Partially Affirms, Reverses Damages Ruling In Water Contamination Case
SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court’s damages award, holding that it did not abuse its discretion when it permitted a water agency to assert restoration costs as a measure of damages related to contamination from various chemicals, but it remanded the case to amend the judgment regarding recovery of damages under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), ruling that the trial court wrongly held that the water agency received a double recovery.
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April 17, 2024
Government Can’t ‘Escape Responsibility’ For AFFF Pollution, Plaintiffs Say
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The plaintiffs in five cases pending in the multidistrict litigation for the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) filed a combined brief in South Carolina federal court on April 16 in opposition to a motion to dismiss, arguing that the U.S. government, as the owner of the land on which the “heavily contaminated” Cannon Air Force Base (CAFB) sits, “cannot be permitted to escape responsibility on jurisdictional grounds when the conduct of its employees, on its land, pollutes or otherwise harms its neighbors.”
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April 16, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment Order In Dispute Over Coal Mine Reclamation
RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 15 affirmed a trial court’s order holding that the cabinet secretary of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) is entitled to summary judgment on claims originating from reclamation activities performed by the agency at a property where coal mining occurred.
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April 15, 2024
Pipeline Operators, Property Owners Agree To Settle Oil Spill Claims For $70M
LOS ANGELES — In California federal court, two companies that formerly operated an oil pipeline that ruptured and contaminated residential property in southern California filed a motion for preliminary approval of a class action settlement that would see the companies pay $70 million to property owners who were affected by the rupture.
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April 15, 2024
Nation’s Largest Homebuilder Agrees To Pay Penalty To Settle Clean Water Act Claims
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The nation’s largest homebuilder, alongside the United States, Alabama and the South Carolina Department of Health, jointly filed a consent decree in Alabama federal court that will see the homebuilder pay $400,000 to resolve Clean Water Act (CWA) claims brought against it for its alleged discharge of pollutants in stormwater from its construction sites.
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April 11, 2024
D.C. Circuit: Commerce Clause Allows EPA To Waive CAA Regulations For California
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency has the right to waive Clean Air Act (CAA) standards for new automobile emissions as they apply to California because the powers granted to Congress by the U.S. Constitution allow it to treat states differently when enacting legislation that affects interstate commerce, a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in denying petitions review filed by several states.
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April 10, 2024
N.M. Federal Judge Stays Gold Mine Litigation Between Navajo Nation And Contractor
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico federal judge stayed litigation between a government contractor and the Navajo Nation after the parties announced in a joint motion that they had reached a settlement in principle to resolve the tribe’s claims arising from the contractor’s alleged involvement in the Gold King Mine release, which contaminated large portions of tribal land.
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April 10, 2024
Illinois Federal Judge Dismisses Claims In Dispute Over Natural Gas Release
CHICAGO — A homeowning couple who brought a class action complaint against an Illinois public utility, its parent company and a public relations firm over the three companies’ involvement in releasing natural gas into a large underground aquifer failed to sufficiently plead several of their claims, including those brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), an Illinois federal judge found in partly granting the companies’ motion to dismiss.
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April 10, 2024
Software Developer Is Immune In Clean Air Act Dispute Arising From Defeat Devices
NEW YORK — The developers of a software tool that is used to reprogram car computer systems are entitled to immunity under the Communications Decency Act from a Clean Air Act (CAA) claim brought against them by the United States because the government failed to allege that they developed any software that could be used to defeat vehicle emissions controls, a New York federal judge found in partly granting the developers’ motion to dismiss.
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April 09, 2024
Norfolk Southern To Pay $600M To Settle Ohio Train Derailment Litigation
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Norfolk Southern Railway Co. and Norfolk Southern Corp. (Norfolk Southern collectively) and the plaintiffs suing them filed notice in Ohio federal court on April 9 indicating that they have reached a $600 million agreement in principle to resolve the class action pertaining to alleged injuries from the release of toxic chemicals in the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio; a third-party lawsuit among Norfolk Southern and railcar companies continues.
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April 09, 2024
Insureds Say Remand In Pollution Dispute Is Necessary, Appeal Is Premature
SAN FRANCISCO — Insureds involved in an environmental contamination coverage suit urge the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to remand its suit to the district court, contending that the insurer’s notice of appeal was premature because the district court did not rule on the insureds’ motion to alter or amend the judgment entered in favor of the insureds on the applicability of the pollution exclusion.
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April 08, 2024
CERCLA’s Petroleum Exclusion Creates Fact Questions About ‘Covered Persons’ Status
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — The question of whether three oil companies are “covered persons” under the Comprehensive Environmental, Response, Compensation, and Liability Act cannot be decided at this stage because the companies’ potential liability may be barred by CERCLA’s petroleum exclusion, an Illinois federal judge found in partly denying partial summary judgment to the operator of a refinery where contamination has been identified.
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April 08, 2024
Minn. Federal Judge Grants Summary Judgment Against Tribes In Water Quality Dispute
MINNEAPOLIS — Two federally recognized Indian tribes in Minnesota are not entitled to summary judgment on their claims that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by approving revisions to Minnesota’s water quality standards because the agency’s decisions were based on scientific data and analysis.
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April 05, 2024
Parties Request Final Judgment In Environmental Disparate Impact Dispute
LAKE CHARLES, La. — Louisiana, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) requested an entry of final judgment after a Louisiana federal judge found, in partly granting Louisiana’s motion for a preliminary judgment, that the state showed that it would be irreparably harmed if its environmental agencies were required to perform disparate impact and cumulative impact analysis for their environmental grant and permitting decisions.
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April 04, 2024
Insurer Says District Court Properly Found Coverage Is Barred For Cleanup Costs
ATLANTA — A district court’s ruling that no coverage is owed to an insured for contamination cleanup costs caused by the release of petroleum and other contaminants from an underground storage tank at a gas station must be affirmed because the district court correctly found that the claim for contamination cleanup costs incepted prior to the issuance of the policy and is, therefore, barred from coverage, the insurer says in its appellee brief filed in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal.
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April 01, 2024
Illinois Law Applies In Environmental Contamination Coverage Dispute, Judge Says
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Illinois law must be applied in an environmental contamination coverage dispute because Illinois has a more “substantial interest” in the resolution of the coverage dispute arising out of the insureds’ obligations for remediation costs related to a Superfund site located in Illinois than does the commonwealth of Massachusetts, the location where some of the policies were issued, an Illinois federal judge said March 29 in granting the insureds’ motion to apply Illinois law and in denying the insurers’ motion to apply Massachusetts law.