Even the best factual cases are no match for the principle of federal preemption, as residents of Camillus, New York learned the hard way.
Second Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Onondaga Lake Contamination Suit Citing Federal Preemption
New York Federal Court Holds Consent Order Fails to Resolve CERCLA Liability, Allows Cost Recovery Action Under Section 107
What Is Required to Retain the Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser Exemption from CERCLA Liability?
Have you been in the market to buy property, but learned that the property was contaminated? There are steps that you can take to avoid opening yourself up to liability.
When is Judicial Review Available for an Ongoing Federal Superfund Remediation?
The U.S. Supreme Court has recently declined to consider a case centering on the question of when a citizens' group may challenge an ongoing environmental remediation under the federal Superfund law. The Court's decision lets stand a May 2014 ruling by the Seventh Circuit that chipped away at Superfund's general prohibition on legal challenges to ongoing removal or remedial actions.
EPA Clarifies What Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Procedure Satisfies its All Appropriate Inquiries Rule
As most folks in the commercial real estate industry know, the Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser exemption from liability under the federal Superfund law is a very useful tool. Accordingly, a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is standard practice for nearly every purchase of commercial real estate because it helps to satisfy EPA's "All Appropriate Inquiries" requirement for obtaining BFPP status and avoiding the often harsh liability associated with Superfund.
Tolling Agreements between PRPs Cannot Negate Settling PRP's Entitlement to Benefit of its Settlement
After settling with EPA and having its settlement upheld in court, a potentially responsible party (PRP) is free from liability to all other PRPs given notice of that proposed settlement under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund). This principle, long recognized as key to CERCLA's successful performance, was recently affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in its ASARCO, LLC v. Union Pacific Railroad Company decision.
Former Wolff-Alport Chemical Company is NYC's Newest Federal Superfund Site
New Yorkers like to think their city is the biggest and baddest, and now there's another reason for those sobriquets: last month, the former Wolff-Alport Chemical Company site - less than 1,000 feet from a public middle school and a private day care center- earned the title of most radioactive site in New York City today, and became the second radioactive site in New York City in the Superfund program's history. On May 8, 2014, EPA listed the 3/4-acre property located at Irving Avenue and Cooper Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens, as a federal Superfund site. This is the third active federal Superfund site in New York City.
Court Determines that All Remediation at a Superfund Site Constitutes One "Remedial Action"
How many remediation angels can dance on a single remediation pinhead? In the recent NL Industries v. ACF Industries ruling, a federal judge in the Western District of New York decided that, for the purposes of CERCLA cost recovery and declaratory judgment claims, all actions taken to clean up a Superfund site constitute one set of remedial actions, regardless of the number of "operable units" the site is divided into during the remediation.
Supreme Court Declines to Weigh in on CERCLA Subrogation Case
Sometimes the Supreme Court's silence can be just as powerful as a decision. Or as James Joyce said about "absence" - it's the "highest form of presence."
Environmental Disaster Highlights the Need for TSCA Reform
Love Canal, New York; Cuyahoga River, Ohio; Times Beach, Missouri; Hopewell, Virginia; Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. These are the sites of some of the worst environmental contamination in our nation's history. Each of these disasters drew significant public attention, and incited the political will to confront similar environmental hazards more systematically.
