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

Mealey's Pollution Liability

June 11, 2025
Seattle Gypsum Manufacturer Faces Permit, CWA Violations In Water Pollution Suit

SEATTLE — An environmental nonprofit on June 10 filed suit in a federal court in Washington against a Seattle-based gypsum manufacturing facility for alleged violations of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit and the Clean Water Act (CWA) through discharges of stormwater and industrial waste into the nearby waters of Puget Sound.
June 11, 2025
Ferrosilicon Producer Seeks Reconsideration On Discovery Limits In Cleanup Row

PADUCAH, Ky. — A ferrosilicon producer seeks reconsideration of a Kentucky federal magistrate judge’s ruling limiting the scope of the producer’s issued deposition topics, claiming that the court erred in failing to acknowledge a reinsurer as a proper party in the litigation and misinterpreted its role in a reinsurance contract in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs.
June 10, 2025
6th Circuit Says Some Fraud Claims In Defeat Device Case Preempted By CAA

CINCINNATI — Several fraud claims made by owners of diesel Chevrolet vehicles who said that they were misled by the manufacturer through the installation of devices designed to defeat U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions testing may not have been preempted by the Clean Air Act (CAA), a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in partially vacating and remanding a Michigan federal court’s dismissal ruling.
June 06, 2025
Groups Sue City, Companies For Untreated Wastewater Pollution Of Drinking Water

ASHEBORO, N.C. — Environmental groups have sued a city and two businesses in North Carolina federal court contending that they are liable for contaminating groundwater with the cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane by allowing untreated wastewater to make its way downstream into the drinking water supplies for other municipalities.
June 05, 2025
Colorado Dam Construction Delay Unsafe, Unmerited, Judge Says In Injunction Denial

DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado determined that a stay enjoining construction of a massive Boulder County water expansion project pending an appeal by the city and county of Denver to an order that remanded permits for the project to the federal agencies that issued them “is not merited due to safety concerns,” denying a motion for permanent injunction filed by a group of environmental nonprofits.
June 04, 2025
Exxon Waives Waiting Period, Groups Answer Petition In High Court CAA Penalty Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — ExxonMobil on June 4 waived a 14-day waiting period for distribution and wants the U.S. Supreme Court to consider by the end of the month a petition for a writ of certiorari asking for review of an order issued by a “fractured” en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that requires the company to pay a $14.25 million penalty for air pollution incidents at a Texas facility.
June 04, 2025
Conn. Landowner Says 2nd Circuit Erred In Remediation Finding In Wetlands CWA Case

NEW YORK — A Connecticut landowner found to be liable for the remediation of his property after he violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by filling in protected wetlands without a permit and failed to adhere to warnings and notices from various federal agencies filed a motion for a petition for rehearing as a matter of law asking the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss the case and issue an injunction preventing federal agencies from enforcing the CWA on private property.
June 04, 2025
U.S. Says High Court Should Hear Washington Port Facility CWA Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States says the U.S. Supreme Court should grant a petition for writ of certiorari filed by the operators of a Tacoma, Wash., marine cargo terminal asking whether the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was correct in ruling that two state-issued National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits applied to the entirety of the terminal where stormwater discharges entered into Puget Sound on the grounds that private citizens cannot bring actions in federal court to enforce certain state permit conditions under the Clean Water Act (CWA).
June 02, 2025
Seattle Woman’s Heatwave Death Generates Climate Change Suit Against Fuel Companies

SEATTLE — The daughter of a Washington woman who died from extreme heat that was allegedly “directly linked to fossil fuel-driven alteration of the climate” is suing manufacturers, distributors and sellers of fossil fuels in a Washington court for wrongful death, public nuisance and failure to warn for their alleged roles in effecting the reportedly fatal climate change circumstances.
May 28, 2025
COMMENTARY: Tennessee Passes First-Of-Its-Kind Law To Require “Sound Science” In Environmental Regulations

By Mark A. Behrens and Joseph T. Zaleski
May 30, 2025
Young Montana Residents Sue Trump, Federal Agencies For GHG Pollution Exposure

BUTTE, Mont. — A group of 22 minors and young adults in a May 29 complaint asks a federal judge in Montana to rescind and declare unconstitutional a series of executive orders issued by President Donald J. Trump and his administration that include directives to increase fossil fuel production, alleging fossil fuel greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is “destroying the foundation of” their lives and infringing on their constitutional rights.
May 29, 2025
La. Officials Sued Over Air Quality Monitoring Law That Curbs Community Detection

BATON ROUGE, La. — Several environmental nonprofit organizations allege in a complaint in a Louisiana federal court that a state law aimed at providing public access to air quality monitoring results violates the First and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution by targeting their grassroots missions to monitor air quality in local communities, thus tying their hands and making them susceptible to “crippling civil penalties.”
May 28, 2025
Injunction Denied Again In Montana Fire Retardant Dispute Despite CWA Violation

MISSOULA, Mont.— Without “any material change in circumstances” detected since an earlier denial, a Montana federal judge once again decided not to grant a motion for permanent injunction filed by an environmental group that would have regulated the U.S. Forest Service’s aerial deployment of fire retardant to fight wildfires after the service violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by performing the action without a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
May 23, 2025
Stay Partially Granted In Ill. Pollution Deception Case Remanded To State Court

CHICAGO — Following an order granting a motion by Chicago to remand to state court a suit against several large oil companies alleging they deceived the public about the harmful effects fossil fuel products have on climate change, an Illinois federal judge granted the companies’ emergency motion for a temporary stay of execution of the order pending a ruling in the federal court on a forthcoming motion to stay pending appeal but denied staying the order until the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rules on a motion to stay that would be filed in that court if the motion is denied, calling the latter request “premature.”
May 23, 2025
5th Circuit Changes Course, Sends Texas Air Quality Assessment Back To EPA

NEW ORLEANS — Much like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in its attainment designations of two Texas counties for the 2010 national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for sulfur dioxide over the last decade, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has changed course and granted petitions for review and rehearing filed by the state and several power companies on the agency’s latest nonattainment decision.
May 22, 2025
Kentucky Federal Judge Denies Reconsideration Request In Cleanup Costs Dispute

PADUCAH, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky overruled the objections presented in and denied a ferrosilicon producer’s motion for reconsideration of a January ruling that denied the producer’s motion to compel production of documents in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs, ruling that the reconsideration motion impermissibly raised new arguments and failed to identify claimed ambiguities in a reinsurance contract between it and an insurer and reinsurer.
May 21, 2025
Panel: Property Owners Seeking Remediation Costs Failed To Exhaust All Remedies

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court dismissed a petition filed by two property owners seeking review of the Pennsylvania Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Board’s decision that the property owners are entitled to reimbursement of only 42.3% of remediation costs incurred in removing underground storage tanks because the property owners failed to exhaust all administrative remedies before seeking judicial review.
May 20, 2025
Colorado High Court Majority Says Municipalities Can Sue For Climate Change Claims

DENVER — A Colorado Supreme Court majority ruled that federal law did not preempt two municipalities’ claims against a group of oil and gas companies and gave them the green light to sue under state law for alleged damages to infrastructure and resources by contributing to climate change through the sale and promotion of fossil fuel products.
May 16, 2025
Supreme Court Sets Timeline For Decision On Federal Officer Removal Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court set May 29 for consideration of a petition by oil companies challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling remanding cases involving claims that World War II oil operations departed from prudent industry practices and violated state law.
May 15, 2025
Federal Judge Says Permit Limitations Valid In Denying Reconsideration In CWA Case

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California denied a motion filed by two cities to reconsider several orders granting relief in favor of an environmental organization that sued them for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) through the discharge of bacteria pollution from stormwater sewage systems, stating that the cities “may not collaterally attack the validity of the permit limitations.”
May 14, 2025
States Led By W.Va. Intervene In Chamber Suit To Fight Vt. Climate Superfund Act

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A group of states led by West Virginia joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a national nonprofit trade association in suing environmental officials in Vermont over the state’s Climate Superfund Act, alleging violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA), U.S. Constitution, federal law and the Vermont Constitution by instituting “self-described retroactive fines on traditional energy producers for” previous, lawful greenhouse gas emissions endorsed by both federal and state officials.
May 14, 2025
S.C. Federal Judge Dismisses Residents’ CWA Claims In Mitigation Bank Case

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal judge in South Carolina denied a motion for summary judgment and dismissed a case brought by a group of residents alleging that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by approving a plan for the development of a mitigation bank in the North Edisto River watershed near their homes, stating among the findings that the residents “cite no concrete injury” to establish standing after the completion of construction of the project.
May 13, 2025
3M To Pay $450M To Settle New Jersey PFAS Litigation While DuPont Faces Trial

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin on May 13 announced a $450 million settlement with 3M Co. only related to drinking water contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in litigation brought by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) against 3M, EIDP Inc., formerly E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., and its affiliates from DuPont’s Chambers Works plant.
May 08, 2025
New Mexico Refinery Operator To Pay U.S. $1M For Polluting Air With Benzene

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The owner and operator of a New Mexico oil refinery has implemented a series of remediation projects and will pay the federal government more than $1 million for violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and New Mexico Air Quality Control Act (AQCA) through a consent decree reached after reports of high benzene levels from the facility’s property boundary monitoring program.
May 08, 2025
Environmental Organizations Sue For FOIA Violations Over Army Corps Energy Records

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two environmental nonprofits want a federal judge to order the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to hand over public records pertaining to regulations and permit applications filed in response to a presidential executive order that aims to address the “inadequate” national supply and capacity of energy and critical minerals, alleging multiple violations of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in a civil complaint.