Mealey's Pollution Liability : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Pollution Liability

May 08, 2024
COMMENTARY: A Primer On PFAS/Forever Chemical Claims: Regulation, Litigation, Large Losses & Insurance Coverage Issues

By Scott M. Seaman and Gar N. Lauerman
May 07, 2024
Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Dust Emissions Suit, Insurer Says

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — No coverage is owed to an insured for an underlying lawsuit stemming from dust emissions from the insured’s facility because the policy’s pollution exclusion bars coverage for the lawsuit, an insurer maintains in a complaint filed in Texas federal court.
May 03, 2024
Creek Pollution Case Is Not Simple, Federal Judge Says In Denying Reconsideration

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — In denying a motion for reconsideration of an order in which summary judgment was partly granted to a defendant landfill operator on claims arising from its alleged contamination of a creek, a Tennessee federal judge rejected the plaintiff property owner’s assertion that the core of the dispute, which has lasted more than a decade, is simple when stripped of its procedural complexity.
May 01, 2024
Fact Questions Exist About Alleged Leachate Discharges At California Waste Facility

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There are genuine questions of material fact about whether the operator of a recycling and waste facility violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) and California law by discharging stormwater-contaminated leachate into a wetland preserve and, eventually, the Sacramento River because there is no definitive evidence that the stormwater that entered the river contained the leachate, a California judge found in partly granting the nonprofit plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment.
April 29, 2024
Plaintiffs Seek Approval Of $600M Settlement Of Train Derailment Lawsuit In Ohio

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The co-lead counsel for plaintiffs filed a brief in Ohio federal court on April 26 supporting a motion for preliminary approval of a $600 million settlement to resolve the class action against Norfolk Southern Railway Co. and Norfolk Southern Corp. (Norfolk Southern, collectively) pertaining to alleged injuries from the release of toxic chemicals at the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio; a third-party lawsuit among Norfolk Southern and railcar companies continues.
April 29, 2024
California Federal Judge Refuses To Bifurcate Landfill Contamination Case

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge refused to bifurcate claims arising from contaminated groundwater near a new development into separate trials for equitable and legal claims because the evidence on record is relevant to all the claims.
April 26, 2024
EPA Announces 4 Final Rules Aimed At Reducing Power Plant Pollution

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a press release issued April 25, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it has finalized a set of four rules that will reduce pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants by updating standards for coal combustion residual (CCR) storage, heavy metal emissions, wastewater discharges and coal ash storage.
April 26, 2024
Chemical Producer Fails To Invoke Federal Jurisdiction In Statewide Pollution Row

TRENTON, N.J. — Federal jurisdiction is not proper over claims brought by the New Jersey attorney general and a state agency against a chemical producer for its alleged contamination of the state’s natural resources with carcinogenic chemicals because the claims are based exclusively on state law, a New Jersey federal judge found in remanding the case to state court.
April 25, 2024
Pollution Exclusion Bars Coverage For Claims Based On Release Of Pollutants

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify its insured against underlying counterclaims in an environmental contamination coverage dispute because the policies’ pollution exclusion clearly bars coverage for the counterclaims, which are based on the release of threatened release of pollutants as defined in the policies at issue, a West Virginia federal judge said in granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
April 24, 2024
Panel: Environmental Agency May Sue For Water Pollution Despite Prior Agreement

TRENTON, N.J. — In an unpublished opinion, a state appellate panel in New Jersey reversed and remanded a groundwater contamination case, ruling that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) did not forfeit its right to sue chemical companies as a result of a prior consent order to remediate the hazard.
April 24, 2024
Majority Of Louisiana Panel Affirms Dismissal Of Oil And Gas Contamination Claims

BATON ROUGE, La. — The owner of a large tract of land that was previously used for oil and gas drilling is not entitled to recover claims for breach of implied obligations against a company that worked on the land because Louisiana environmental law limits the amount of damages such plaintiffs can recover, the majority of a Louisiana appeals court panel found in affirming the trial court’s judgment.
April 24, 2024
Statute Of Repose Bars Chemical Spill Tort Claims, Kansas Federal Judge Says

WICHITA, Kan. — Tort claims brought by a group of local residents whose property was allegedly contaminated by migrating chemicals that originated at an industrial railroad site are barred by the applicable 10-year statute of repose for property damage claims because the original spills occurred several decades ago, a Kansas federal judge found in partly granting the railroad company’s motion to dismiss.
April 23, 2024
New York Federal Judge Dismisses More Landfill Claims For Failure To Prosecute

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A New York federal judge granted a motion to dismiss claims brought by a man who said the operation of a nearby landfill violated the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) because the man failed to prosecute the case for several years.
April 22, 2024
New EPA Final Rule Will List 2 PFAS As Hazardous Substances Under CERCLA

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency announced April 19 that it will soon finalize a rule that will add two widely used per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the list of hazardous substances covered by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
April 22, 2024
Missouri Federal Judge Stays Nuclear Waste Dispute Pending 8th Circuit Decision

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge stayed an action arising from alleged property damage caused by nuclear waste from two landfills because the central issue of what standard of care applies to public liability actions under the Price-Anderson Act (PAA) is pending before the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
April 18, 2024
Wash. Federal Judge Won’t Reconsider Order Denying Cultural Damages Under CERCLA

SPOKANE, Wash. — A Washington federal judge denied a motion to reconsider an order holding that the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation are not entitled to cultural resource damages arising from a smelter’s alleged disposal of millions of tons of toxic slag and liquid effluent into the Columbia River because such damages are not available under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
April 17, 2024
Panel Partially Affirms, Reverses Damages Ruling In Water Contamination Case

SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court’s damages award, holding that it did not abuse its discretion when it permitted a water agency to assert restoration costs as a measure of damages related to contamination from various chemicals, but it remanded the case to amend the judgment regarding recovery of damages under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), ruling that the trial court wrongly held that the water agency received a double recovery.
April 17, 2024
Government Can’t ‘Escape Responsibility’ For AFFF Pollution, Plaintiffs Say

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The plaintiffs in five cases pending in the multidistrict litigation for the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) filed a combined brief in South Carolina federal court on April 16 in opposition to a motion to dismiss, arguing that the U.S. government, as the owner of the land on which the “heavily contaminated” Cannon Air Force Base (CAFB) sits, “cannot be permitted to escape responsibility on jurisdictional grounds when the conduct of its employees, on its land, pollutes or otherwise harms its neighbors.”
April 16, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment Order In Dispute Over Coal Mine Reclamation

RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 15 affirmed a trial court’s order holding that the cabinet secretary of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) is entitled to summary judgment on claims originating from reclamation activities performed by the agency at a property where coal mining occurred.
April 15, 2024
Pipeline Operators, Property Owners Agree To Settle Oil Spill Claims For $70M

LOS ANGELES — In California federal court, two companies that formerly operated an oil pipeline that ruptured and contaminated residential property in southern California filed a motion for preliminary approval of a class action settlement that would see the companies pay $70 million to property owners who were affected by the rupture.
April 15, 2024
Nation’s Largest Homebuilder Agrees To Pay Penalty To Settle Clean Water Act Claims

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The nation’s largest homebuilder, alongside the United States, Alabama and the South Carolina Department of Health, jointly filed a consent decree in Alabama federal court that will see the homebuilder pay $400,000 to resolve Clean Water Act (CWA) claims brought against it for its alleged discharge of pollutants in stormwater from its construction sites.
April 11, 2024
D.C. Circuit: Commerce Clause Allows EPA To Waive CAA Regulations For California

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency has the right to waive Clean Air Act (CAA) standards for new automobile emissions as they apply to California because the powers granted to Congress by the U.S. Constitution allow it to treat states differently when enacting legislation that affects interstate commerce, a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in denying petitions review filed by several states.
April 10, 2024
N.M. Federal Judge Stays Gold Mine Litigation Between Navajo Nation And Contractor

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico federal judge stayed litigation between a government contractor and the Navajo Nation after the parties announced in a joint motion that they had reached a settlement in principle to resolve the tribe’s claims arising from the contractor’s alleged involvement in the Gold King Mine release, which contaminated large portions of tribal land.
April 10, 2024
Illinois Federal Judge Dismisses Claims In Dispute Over Natural Gas Release

CHICAGO — A homeowning couple who brought a class action complaint against an Illinois public utility, its parent company and a public relations firm over the three companies’ involvement in releasing natural gas into a large underground aquifer failed to sufficiently plead several of their claims, including those brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), an Illinois federal judge found in partly granting the companies’ motion to dismiss.
April 10, 2024
Software Developer Is Immune In Clean Air Act Dispute Arising From Defeat Devices

NEW YORK — The developers of a software tool that is used to reprogram car computer systems are entitled to immunity under the Communications Decency Act from a Clean Air Act (CAA) claim brought against them by the United States because the government failed to allege that they developed any software that could be used to defeat vehicle emissions controls, a New York federal judge found in partly granting the developers’ motion to dismiss.