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Mealey's Pollution Liability

January 24, 2024
Calif. Panel: State Agency Did Not Violate Water Code By Rejecting Mitigation Work

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Santa Ana Region, did not violate the California Water Code by finding that an engineering company’s attempts to mitigate hazardous tetrachloroethylene (PCE) vapors at its facility were inadequate because the board did not order the company to perform any specific kind of mitigation work, a California panel found in affirming a trial court’s decision to deny a company’s petition for writ of administrative mandate.
January 22, 2024
Supreme Court Agrees To Divide Arguments In Good Neighbor Plan Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Jan. 22 order list, the U.S. Supreme granted two motions to divide oral arguments covering four applications for a stay of a final rule, known as the Good Neighbor Plan, issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act (CAA) that would establish an implementation plan for attaining air quality standards for 23 states whose own plans were disapproved by the agency.
January 22, 2024
Citizen Group Failed To Establish Injury On CWA Claims, Calif. Federal Judge Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A citizen environmental group that alleges that two modular home manufacturers violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by, among other things, discharging polluted stormwater from its facility, failed to establish associational standing because it did not support its allegations of injury with independent factual allegations, a California federal judge found in granting the manufacturers’ motion to dismiss without prejudice.
January 19, 2024
Woman Sues Navy For PFAS Contamination Of Island’s Groundwater Supply

SEATTLE — A woman has sued the US. Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Department of the Navy in Washington federal court seeking damages for allegedly contaminating groundwater with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) through discharges of the chemical at a Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island.
January 17, 2024
High Court Told ‘Chaos’ Will Ensue ‘In A World Without Chevron’ Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court was told Jan. 17 that “chaos” will ensue “in a world without Chevron” deference by government attorneys, who urged it to apply stare decisis and uphold Chevron, which is being challenged in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations.
January 10, 2024
Reinsurer Tackles Third-Party Beneficiary Theory In Cleanup Costs Coverage Row

PADUCAH, Ky. — Arguing in part that what it calls a newly asserted third-party beneficiary theory fails as a matter of law, a reinsurer filed a reply brief on Jan. 9 urging a Kentucky federal court to grant its summary judgment motion in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs.
January 10, 2024
Ill. Federal Judge Partly Grants Motion, Denies Another In Environmental Dispute

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on Jan. 9 partly granted a motion by Aurora, Ill., to dismiss a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act counterclaim raised by a company that allegedly disposed of hazardous waste at its scrap-metal recycling site and also saw its motion to dismiss the city’s Clean Water Act (CWA) claim against it denied by the judge in the same decision.
January 10, 2024
S.C. Federal Judge Says Residents Stated Cognizable Clean Water Act Claims

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A group of residents gave proper notice of their cognizable claims under the Clean Water Act (CWA) by sufficiently alleging that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency violated the CWA by approving a plan for the development of a mitigation bank in the North Edisto River watershed near their homes, a South Carolina federal judge found in denying the two agencies’ motion to dismiss.
January 09, 2024
Ala. Federal Judge: Group Lacks Standing To Challenge Coal Residuals Closure Plan

MOBILE, Ala. — An environmental group does not have standing to challenge a power company’s coal combustion residuals (CCR) closure plan under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) because the group’s claims are not “fairly traceable” to the plan or redressable, an Alabama federal judge held in granting the company’s motion to dismiss.
January 08, 2024
10th Circuit: Trial Court Failed To Analyze All Evidence In CWA Judgment

DENVER — A trial court erred in holding that the operator of a gold mine violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by discharging pollutants from a processing plant that eventually migrated to a nearby river because there was relevant evidence regarding the discharges that was not thoroughly analyzed, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in reversing and remanding the trial court’s judgment.
January 05, 2024
Federal Magistrate Judge Denies Motion To Approve Settlement In CERCLA Case

MILWAUKEE — In denying a joint motion to approve a pro rata settlement filed by three parties seeking to resolve Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act claims arising from contamination at a former manufacturing plant, a Wisconsin federal magistrate judge found that the record was not developed enough to determine whether one of the former operators of the plant would be prejudiced by the terms settlement.
January 05, 2024
Environmental Center Appeals Judgment Dismissing CWA Claims To 9th Circuit

SAN FRANCISCO — An environmental law center has appealed an order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana in which a federal judge found that the center’s Clean Water Act (CWA) claims arising from alleged discharges of treated wastewater from a mountain resort are barred by a consent decree in a previous case covering the same allegations.
January 05, 2024
California Federal Judge: Recycling Company Violated Clean Water Act 12,541 Times

SANTA ANA , Calif. — In a final judgment based on a jury verdict, a California federal judge found that a recycling company that discharged stormwater into the Temescal Creek in violation of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit is responsible for violating the Clean Water Act 12,541 times.
December 21, 2023
Supreme Court Will Hear Oral Arguments Covering Good Neighbor Plan Stay

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 20 deferred, pending oral argument, consideration of four applications for a stay of a final rule, known as the Good Neighbor Plan, issued by the EPA under the Clean Air Act (CAA) that would establish an implementation plan for attaining air quality standards for 23 states whose own plans were disapproved by the agency.
December 21, 2023
D.C. Circuit Follows Other Circuit Courts, Remands Climate Change Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Climate change claims brought by the District of Columbia against several of the world’s largest oil companies belong in state court because the claims themselves arise under state law and the companies failed to show any grounds that justified removal, a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming an order remanding the claims.
December 20, 2023
In Light Of Sackett, 5th Circuit Says Timber Plantation Is Not Subject To CWA

NEW ORLEANS — Land used for pine timber plantation is not subject to the Clean Water Act (CWA) because it does not contain wetlands that connect to navigable waters of the United States, the majority of a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in vacating a trial court’s judgment.
December 20, 2023
Missouri Federal Magistrate Judge: Environmental Harm At Issue Is Not Divisible

JOPLIN, Mo. — The former operator of a fertilizer plant is joint and severally liable under the Comprehensive Environmental, Response, Compensation, and Liability Act for environmental harm caused by a stack of hazardous byproduct stored near the plant because the operator failed to show that the harm was volumetrically divisible, a Missouri federal magistrate judge announced in setting forth findings of fact and conclusions of law.
December 18, 2023
Pollution Liability Insurer Says Environmental Damage Claim Is Barred From Coverage

TRENTON, N.J. — A premises pollution liability insurer says in a motion to dismiss filed in New Jersey federal court that its insured’s breach its contract and bad faith suit must be dismissed because the policy at issue clearly excludes coverage for the environmental contamination remediation costs incurred by the insured municipality.
December 18, 2023
Liquidation Order Prompts Letters, Order In Environmental Claims Row

NEWARK, N.J. — After all parties in a suit over environmental investigation and remediation briefly weighed in on the implications of a different court’s liquidation order pertaining to one defendant, a New Jersey federal magistrate judge delayed a status conference and granted that defendant “leave to file a motion for relief relating to the Liquidation Order.”
December 12, 2023
Washington Federal Judge: Sackett Decision Didn’t Affect CWA Consent Decree

SEATTLE — The U.S. Supreme Court’s adoption of a definition of wetlands for the purposes of the Clean Water Act (CWA) did not constitute a significant change in circumstances that warranted revision of a consent decree entered between the United States, an Indian tribe and two companies over the companies’ alleged illegal discharges of dredged and fill material into protected waters because the definition was previously unchallenged in the case, a Washington federal judge found in denying the companies’ motion to vacate or modify the consent decree.
December 12, 2023
Insurer Was Not Prejudiced By Insured’s Notice In Pollution Suit, Insured Says

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 should be reversed because the insurer failed to show that the insured’s untimely notice was prejudicial to the insurer, the insured says in its appellant brief filed in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal.
December 11, 2023
Chicago Dismisses Lake Michigan Spill Claims Against Steel Manufacturer

HAMMOND, Ind. — In Indiana federal court, the city of Chicago filed a stipulation of dismissal of its claims brought against United States Steel Corp. (U.S. Steel) for the company’s alleged release of hazardous chemicals into Lake Michigan.
December 06, 2023
Montana High Court: Board Erred In Approving Permit To Expand Coal Mine

HELENA, Mont. — The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Board of Environmental Review erred in upholding the approval of a permit to expand operations at a coal mine by declining to address certain arguments made by conservation groups and in making certain rulings regarding water quality violations and the cumulative impacts that would affect a creek near the mine the conservation groups say will be harmed by the expansion, the Montana Supreme Court found in remanding a trial court’s order.
December 06, 2023
9th Circuit: Suction Dredge Mining In Idaho River Required NPDES Permit

SAN FRANCISCO — Suction dredge mining operations require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit because the activity causes pollutants in the form of suspended bedrock and other materials to be discharged, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming a trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of an environmental group that sued a man for performing the mining in an Idaho river without a permit.
December 06, 2023
9th Circuit: Pipe Not Connected To Storage Pond Cannot Be CWA Point Source

SEATTLE — A trial court did not err in finding that an underground drainage pipe that allegedly carries polluted water from three storage ponds at a mountain resort to the Gallatin River was not a point source for pollution under the Clean Water Act (CWA) because the pipe does not connect two distinct bodies of water, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming the trial court’s decision to deny an environmental group’s motion for summary judgment.