Mealey's Pollution Liability
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March 31, 2022
Trial Court Properly Dismissed Insurer’s Environmental Contamination Coverage Suit
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A trial court did not err in dismissing an insurer’s declaratory judgment suit involving coverage for an environmental contamination claim because the trial court properly found that it did not have personal jurisdiction over the additional insured, which is seeking coverage under the policy, an Ohio appellate court said March 21.
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March 30, 2022
Arsenic Contamination, Concealment Claims Tossed In Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky on March 28 granted a motion for summary judgment in connection with allegations that Philips North America and Corning Inc. contaminated the ground surrounding a former Danville, Ky., glass manufacturing facility with arsenic.
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March 29, 2022
New Mexico, Tribes Sue For Hazardous Waste Cleanup At Former Munitions Depot
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico and two Native American tribes filed a federal suit on March 28 against the U.S. government seeking damages for natural resources destruction by hazardous substances, including “explosive compounds” on land of a former U.S. Army munitions depot that will be transferred to the tribes once it is cleaned up.
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March 28, 2022
Maryland Agency Gives Baltimore 48 Hours To Comply With Permits
BALTIMORE — On the heels of a failed inspection by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), the city of Baltimore and its mayor were ordered by the agency on May 24 to immediately cease discharges of improperly or inadequately treated wastewater by the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).
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March 28, 2022
Panel: Constitutional Challenge To Pollution Penalty Is Untimely
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee appeals court on March 24 upheld a trial court’s determination that an oil recycling facility and property owner must pay an upfront civil penalty and damages because they failed to file an administrative appeal of the award.
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March 25, 2022
Parties Stipulate To Dismissal As To Last Defendant In Reinsurance Billings Row
BOSTON — Parties in a reinsurance billings dispute over the allocation of a $120 million environmental claims settlement on March 23 filed a joint stipulation of dismissal as to what they said was the last remaining defendant in the action in Massachusetts federal court.
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March 25, 2022
EPA Administrator Dinged Over Failure To Address Smog Ratings
SAN FRANCISCO — In a declaratory judgment citizen lawsuit filed March 24, environmental groups asked a California federal court to compel the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to perform his “mandatory duties” with regard to 2008’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).
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March 25, 2022
Ohio, Monsanto Reach $80M Deal On PCB Contamination Of Drinking Water, Soil
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on March 24 announced an $80 million settlement with Monsanto Co. resolving drinking water and environmental damage claims related to contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
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March 24, 2022
Owner Of Solid Waste Dumping Site Ordered To Pay Cleanup Costs
SPOKANE, Wash. — In an unpublished ruling issued March 21, an appeals court in Washington upheld a trial court’s order directing a plaintiff who allowed and even encouraged others to dump solid waste on his property to pay $3.8 million in cleanup costs.
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March 23, 2022
CERCLA Claim Against West Virginia DEP Dismissed, But Other Claims Survive
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia on March 15 said that a citizen suit’s request for prospective relief under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act against the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) is barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity.
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March 21, 2022
Ohio Supreme Court: State Waived Right To Challenge Section 401 Certification
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A divided Ohio Supreme Court on March 17 agreed with a trial court that the state waived its ability to participate in the certification process for a pipeline project when it failed to respond to a pipeline builder’s application under the Clean Water Act (CWA) within one year.
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March 21, 2022
Condo Owners Prevail In Dispute Over Post- Pollution Property Values
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Appeals Court on March 17 upheld a jury’s award of $1,419,550 in damages in favor of a group of condominium owners who sued over soil contamination at their property from a nearby former landfill that was operated by a city.
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March 18, 2022
Rehearing Bid In Fight Over Emissions Defeating Parts Denied In Utah
SALT LAKE CITY — A January order denying dismissal of allegations that aftermarket “defeat parts” run afoul of the Clean Air Act (CAA) will stand, a federal judge in Utah ruled March 15.
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March 18, 2022
Coal Mine Enjoined From Discharging Selenium In Excess Of Permit Limits
CLARKSBURG, W. Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia on March 7 granted an injunction in a citizen suit over a coal mine’s pollution of the Birch River and a nearby creek with selenium.
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March 18, 2022
10th Circuit Agrees: Appellant Is On The Hook For Cleanup Costs
DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 7 left intact an Oklahoma federal judge’s decision to pierce the corporate veil in a lawsuit seeking contribution from the successor to the owner of a zinc smelting facility under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
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March 17, 2022
No Coverage Owed For Alleged Pollution Incidents, Ohio Appeals Panel Says
COLUMBUS, Ohio — No coverage is afforded under a commercial general liability and environmental exposure policy for cleanup costs and damages incurred as a result of an insured’s hazardous waste disposals because the property owner, named as an additional insured under the policy, failed to report the claim within the policy period, an Ohio appellate court said March 10 in affirming a trial court’s ruling in favor of the insurer.
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March 17, 2022
Alabama Federal Judge Won’t Dismiss Claims Over Oil Leakages
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Allegations of Clean Water Act violations by an Alabama business that a nearby facility that leases land to park oil tanker trucks overnight will proceed, a federal judge in Alabama ruled March 14.
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March 15, 2022
In New Mexico CERCLA Contribution Case, Dismissal Bid Denied
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A federal judge in New Mexico on March 10 said that claims for cost recovery and contribution under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act leveled in connection with a nearly two-mile-long contaminated groundwater plume will proceed.
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March 10, 2022
Montana Resort Seeks To Dismiss Suit Alleging CWA Violation
BUTTE, Mont. — A Montana resort accused of discharging nitrogen into the Gallatin River without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit on Feb. 10 moved a Montana federal court to dismiss the lawsuit against it, arguing that the plaintiffs fail to identify a “point source” from which the pollutant was discharged and “fail to plead facts sufficient to state a plausible claim.”
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March 08, 2022
Los Angeles Says Monsanto Knowingly Contaminated Water With PCBs
LOS ANGELES — The city of Los Angeles on March 4 sued Monsanto Co. in state court seeking damages because “despite its early knowledge of the dangers” associated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the company contaminated drinking water and the environment at large through the manufacture and use of PCBs in the city.