Federal courts often rely on “Chevron deference” in upholding regulations issued pursuant to vague congressional authorization. This doctrine dictates that where the statutory language is unclear, a court will defer to a...more
Courts have often noted that CERCLA is not a model of drafting excellence, and that some of the statute’s definitions are simply tautologies, e.g., that an owner means an owner. ...more
On August 27, 2018, the Office of Restoration and Damage Assessment (ORDA) at the Department of the Interior published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and request for public comment on revision of the Department’s...more
On October 17, 2017, the U.S. and the States of Rhode Island and Massachusetts lodged what was acknowledged as a “unique” settlement with a tug boat owner and operator for natural resource damages resulting from a 2003 marine...more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a district court decision allocating 100% of CERCLA response to costs to a U.S. military contractor, where both the U.S. and the contractor were liable parties. TDY Holdings,...more
The most active agency in carrying out the Trump agenda in its first year has been the EPA, where there has been a raft of efforts to roll back the regulatory initiatives of the Obama Administration. However, in one area the...more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revived a contribution action under CERCLA, and in the course of ruling, it addressed three issues of first impression in the Circuit regarding contribution litigation under CERCLA. Asarco,...more
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a decision on an aspect of CERCLA for which it found almost no prior court precedent – the temporal aspect of the term “current owner or operator” –...more
In the long-running saga of efforts by the State of Washington and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to attach CERCLA liability to a smelter in British Columbia, the smelter owner, Teck Industries, won a...more
Yesterday, the EPA published for comment notice of its intent to amend the “All Appropriate Inquiries Rule,” 40 CFR part 312, to remove references to ASTM E1527-05 “Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase...more
On June 9, in CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, et al., No. 13-339, the U.S. Supreme Court held 7-2, that the Fourth Circuit erred in holding that CERCLA Section 9658 applied to the application of the North Carolina statute of repose,...more