Washington State’s most recent legislative session brought a flurry of environmental activity, with lawmakers advancing measures on climate disclosure, chemical regulation, clean energy infrastructure, and, after several...more
Last month, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced a rulemaking process to list perflouorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) as hazardous substances under the Oregon Cleanup...more
On February 12, 2024, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published a final rule that created several long-awaited general permits under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (Eagle Act) to authorize...more
Two developments toward the end of 2023 have clouded the future of climate policy in the Pacific Northwest. First, on November 21, 2023, opponents of Washington’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA) submitted more than 400,000...more
A long-running dispute over a substantial civil penalty issued by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for violations of Oregon’s landfill closure requirements continued with the Oregon Court of Appeals’...more
After a brief hiatus, incidental take of migratory birds will again be a federal crime beginning December 3, 2021. Less than 10 months after instituting a final rule declaring that incidental take of birds is not subject to...more
On May 24, the Supreme Court weighed in on an issue that for decades has bedeviled litigants under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA): When can potentially responsible parties...more
5/26/2021
/ CERCLA ,
Clean Water Act ,
Clean-Up Costs ,
Consent Decrees ,
Contribution Claims ,
Cost Recovery ,
Environmental Liability ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Remediation Costs ,
Guam ,
Guam v United States ,
Hazardous Waste ,
SCOTUS ,
Statute of Limitations ,
U.S. Navy
In a proposed rule published May 7, 2021, the Biden Administration seeks to withdraw the Trump Administration’s Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) liability rule. The MBTA liability rule was published as a final rule on January...more
The Biden Administration is moving quickly to undo the Trump Administration’s Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) liability rule. Published as a final rule on January 7, 2021, this rule for the first time supplied a uniform...more
The U.S. Supreme Court will once again wade into the scope and meaning of CERCLA, granting Guam’s petition for certiorari in Territory of Guam v. United States, No. 20-382, petition for cert. granted (U.S. Jan. 8, 2021). This...more
In a long-unfolding saga, on January 7, 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published its final rule that will at long last establish a clear regulatory definition of the scope of liability under the Migratory Bird...more
On October 27, 2020, the Tenth Circuit upheld a series of OSHA citations that were issued to an oil refining company following a fatal boiler explosion. In doing so, the Tenth Circuit upheld OSHA interpretations that...more
The Department of Ecology (Ecology) and the Department of Health have jointly released the Draft Chemical Action Plan (CAP) for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The Draft CAP will be available for public comment...more
The Trump Administration’s efforts to clarify the scope of liability under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) suffered a setback when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York concluded that the statute...more
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the “Service”) on February 3, 2020 issued a proposed rule that for the first time would supply a uniform regulatory definition of the scope of liability under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act...more
In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that governmental agencies are still entitled to deference in interpreting their own regulations—but only where those regulations are “genuinely ambiguous.” Kisor...more
7/9/2019
/ Administrative Agencies ,
Ambiguous ,
Appeals ,
Auer Deference ,
Kisor v Wilkie ,
Reasonable Interpretations ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Stare Decisis ,
Vacated ,
Veterans' Benefits
On June 6, Washington filed a lawsuit challenging EPA’s May 10, 2019, decision to reverse its 2016 disapproval of Washington’s proposed Human Health Criteria (HHC) under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The lawsuit represents the...more
A Florida federal district court recently denied a petition for class certification by a group of property owners that allegedly suffered health risks and diminished property values due to contamination at Pratt & Whitney’s...more
National environmental groups recently filed a pair of new lawsuits in New York federal district court seeking to expand the scope of liability for “incidental take” under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA”). The...more
In an opinion tilting against the weight of precedent elsewhere, the Montana Supreme Court held that private landowners could pursue common-law claims to clean-up their properties beyond what EPA required in its selected...more
In a decision addressing the unique accrual issues arising in a groundwater contamination action, the Second Circuit affirmed a decision dismissing the Bethpage Water District’s (the “District”) action as untimely. Bethpage...more