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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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).
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).
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 — In an unpublished ruling issued March 21, an appeals court in Washington upheld a trial court’s order directing a plaintiff who allowed and even encouraged others to dump solid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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.