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Mealey's Pollution Liability

  • September 05, 2025

    Oil Companies: Direction, Causal Nexus Not Part Of Federal Officer Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress expanded the federal officer removal statute in 2011 to include conduct connected to federal directives, and asbestos case law establishes that nothing in the statute imposes a causal nexus or contractual directive, oil companies whose World War II drilling activities allegedly violated Louisiana law tell the U.S. Supreme Court in a Sept. 4 brief.

  • September 05, 2025

    Groups Sue EPA In N.Y. Federal Court Over Failure To Regulate Spills In Final Rule

    NEW YORK — A network of environmental justice organizations and several membership groups and members sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a federal court in New York over the agency’s failure to implement new regulations for hazardous substance spills from non-transportation-related onshore facilities in a 2019 final rule.

  • September 04, 2025

    EPA Sued Again In Calif. Federal Court Over Air Pollution In San Joaquin Valley

    SAN FRANCISCO — Several environmental nonprofits filed suit in federal court in California against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleging violation of the Clean Air Act (CAA) for “failing to make a determination of attainment” by a June 2025 deadline for the 2006 24-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5) in the San Joaquin Valley.

  • September 04, 2025

    Calif. Federal Judge: Insurance Companies Liable For Cleanup At CERCLA Site

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge ruled that intervening insurers in a dispute over responsibility for groundwater contamination under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act at a former wood preservation plant are liable on behalf of a former operator for past and future cleanup costs in granting a state agency’s motion for partial summary judgment.

  • September 03, 2025

    D.C. Federal Judge Dismisses Suit Over Elimination Of Environmental Grants

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Claims filed by 23 nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions, tribes and local governments alleging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the U.S. Constitution when it eliminated a federal block grant program designed to help underserved and environmentally challenged communities have been dismissed by a District of Columbia federal judge over lack of jurisdiction and failure to state a cause of action.

  • August 29, 2025

    Oregon Federal Judge Says Group Can Pursue Wildlands CWA Suit Against Air Force

    PENDLETON, Ore. — A federal judge in Oregon ruled that a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the Owyhee Canyonlands showed a concrete and particularized injury-in-fact and causation to establish constitutional standing and stated a sufficient claim for relief under the Clean Water Act (CWA) but failed to establish an informational injury allowing it to sue on its own behalf in a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Air Force for allegedly polluting bodies of water in the area during training exercises at a base that encompasses hundreds of thousands of acres.

  • August 27, 2025

    Companies To Pay U.S. $12.7M Under CERCLA For N.Y. Superfund Site Contamination

    SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Fifteen companies accused of contaminating a New York Superfund site with hazardous substances are set to pay $12.7 million to the United States under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for incurred remediation costs through a proposed consent decree lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

  • August 25, 2025

    United States, EPA Intervene In Federal Suit Challenging Calif. Truck Emissions Law

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In an intervenor complaint filed Aug. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, the United States and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency echo the sentiments of a group of heavy-duty vehicle and engine developers in accusing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) of “defying the supremacy of federal authority” through its continued enforcement of restrictive statewide heavy-duty vehicle emissions standards following a congressional preemption pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA).

  • August 25, 2025

    Congoleum Creditor’s Claim For Pollution Liability Barred, Split 3rd Circuit Says

    PHILADELPHIA — In a divided opinion on rehearing, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 22 held that the bankruptcy court overseeing the decades-old Chapter 11 case of asbestos debtor Congoleum Corp. correctly reopened the case and found that a former affiliate of the debtor is not liable to pay for cleanup at a polluted site in New Jersey.

  • August 21, 2025

    N.Y. Federal Judge Denies Accused Park Polluters JMOL, Orders $4M For Cleanup

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. —  A federal judge in New York ruled that a “jury had more than sufficient evidence” to find that a building company and its owners were negligently liable for public nuisance related to the dumping of tens of thousands of tons of hazardous construction waste and other materials at Roberto Clemente Park.  The judge ordered the defendants to pay more than $4 million in remediation and reimbursement costs to Islip, N.Y., and denied a motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) following the jury trial and verdict.

  • August 19, 2025

    Producer’s Reconsideration Bid On Discovery Limits Denied In Cleanup Cost Row

    PADUCAH, Ky. — A Kentucky federal judge denied a ferrosilicon producer’s motion to reconsider a prior ruling that limited the scope of the producer’s issued deposition topics, holding that the producer’s objections were largely repetitions of prior arguments already considered and addressed by the court and that claims-handling discovery is inappropriate at the current stage of litigation, which is centered on a reinsurance contract in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs.

  • August 19, 2025

    UNC, GE To Pay Millions For Cleanup At Uranium Mine Superfund Sites In New Mexico

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The United Nuclear Corp. (UNC) and parent company GE agreed to pay more than $53 million for remedial cleanup of hazardous waste and reimburse the Navajo Nation for more than $54,300 in past response costs pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 at two former uranium mining sites in New Mexico in a proposed consent decree filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.

  • August 11, 2025

    COMMENTARY: The Forever Chemical: Regulation, Litigation And Insurance

    By Robert D. Chesler, Arthur J. Clarke, Walker Prentke, Brian Della Torre and Matthew J. Sinkman

  • August 14, 2025

    States Can Intervene, Keep Immunity In Youths’ Fossil Fuel Executive Orders Suit

    BUTTE, Mont. — A Montana federal judge ruled Aug. 13 that a group of 19 states and one territory can intervene as defendants and keep their sovereign immunity in a lawsuit filed by 22 minors and young adults against President Donald J. Trump and a litany of government agencies seeking to rescind and declare unconstitutional a series of executive orders that include directives to increase fossil fuel production.

  • August 13, 2025

    UPS To Pay $1.7M, Enact Compliance Programs In Calif. Hazardous Waste Settlement

    STOCKTON, Calif. —  United Parcel Service Inc. and a group of its subsidiaries agreed to pay more than $1.7 million in civil penalties and other costs and implement a series of programs to settle state code violations alleged by the people of California for improper disposal, hauling and reporting of hazardous waste materials during routine operations.

  • August 08, 2025

    Chemours Appeals Injunction Against It Related To PFAS Discharges Into Ohio River

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Chemours Co. FC LLC on Aug. 7 filed a notice in West Virginia federal court indicating that it is appealing to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a judge’s ruling that granted an environmental advocacy group a preliminary injunction in a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination case.  Chemours’s notice, which did not provide any reasons for the appeal, was filed the same day the judge granted the preliminary injunction.

  • August 08, 2025

    Environmental Groups Challenge EPA’s Move To Delay Implementing Methane Standards

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Environmental advocacy groups have sued U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and the EPA in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, challenging the EPA’s final action that extended deadlines for performance standards regarding methane that is produced during hydraulic fracturing operations.

  • August 08, 2025

    Calif. Judge Sanctions City Plaintiffs In Modesto Dry-Cleaning Pollution Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — Finding that “egregious discovery violations” were committed, a California judge imposed issue, evidence and monetary sanctions on the city of Modesto regarding the concealing and destroying of records that show the known existence of perchloroethylene (PCE) contamination in sewers at several former dry-cleaning sites around the city three years before it filed a lawsuit against two chemical companies.

  • August 07, 2025

    Lawsuit Challenging N.Y. Climate Change Act Denied Transfer To Northern District

    NEW YORK — A lawsuit challenging New York’s recently approved climate change act as part of the federal government’s efforts to address an alleged “energy crisis” plaguing the country will remain in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York after a federal judge denied a motion to move it north, finding that the United States’ original district choice was “entitled to great deference.”

  • August 07, 2025

    Consultation Claim Dismissed Against Army Corps Over Alaska Gold Mine CWA Permit

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaskan tribe can pursue only one claim for relief pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over allegations that the Corps failed to properly consult with it on the potential impact on resources, lands and assets when issuing a Clean Water Act (CWA) permit for an open pit gold mine after a federal judge granted a motion to dismiss a failure-to-consult claim filed by the mining company that intervened as a defendant in the case.

  • August 04, 2025

    Hawaii Federal Judge: 4 Individuals, Group Can Bring CWA Fuel Release Claims

    HONOLULU — Four out of 10 individuals and the environmental group they belong to have standing to bring claims against the U.S. Navy under the Clean Water Act (CWA) for releases from an underground fuel storage facility in Honolulu that allegedly contaminated surrounding waters, a federal judge in Hawaii ruled in partly granting the plaintiffs’ partial motion for summary judgment.

  • August 04, 2025

    DuPont To Pay $875M To End New Jersey PFAS Litigation Tied To Chambers Works Site

    TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced Aug. 4 that the state has reached an agreement under which the Chemours Co., DuPont de Nemours Inc. and Corteva Inc. will pay $875 million to resolve all claims brought against 3M Co., EIDP Inc., formerly E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., and its affiliates related to contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) stemming from activity at DuPont’s Chambers Works plant.

  • August 01, 2025

    Plaintiffs’ RCRA Lawsuit Alleges Perdue Farms Tainted Groundwater With PFAS

    BALTIMORE — Two Maryland residents have filed a citizen suit under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) against Perdue Farms Inc. and its affiliates in Maryland federal court, seeking seek declaratory and injunctive relief to remedy Perdue’s alleged violations of law, which the plaintiffs say have resulted in per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) contamination of local groundwater supplies.

  • July 31, 2025

    Alabama Utility Sued Over Capping Of Steam Plant Coal Ash Impoundment

    ANNISTON, Ala. —  A nonprofit public interest organization is suing Alabama Power in federal court over the “unlawful and defective capping” of a coal ash impoundment at its Gadsden Steam Plant near the Coosa River, alleging violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule.

  • July 31, 2025

    8th Circuit Panel Grants Motions To Vacate Appeal In NEPA Final Rule Dispute

    ST. LOUIS — A panel of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal as moot and vacated a lower court’s ruling that granted summary judgment to states that had challenged the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) implementing regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on grounds that the regulations, known as the final rule, illegally sought to transform NEPA’s “carefully delineated procedures for environmental reviews” into “requirements to achieve broad and vague policy goals.”