On June 25, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) (83 F.R. 29499 (June 25, 2018)) regarding Clean Water Act Hazardous Substances Spill Prevention. “EPA has determined that the existing framework of regulatory requirements serves to prevent CWA HS discharges.” Section 311(j)(1)(C) of the Clean Water Act (CWA)…
On June 22, the Texas Supreme Court decided an important environmental case, City of Laredo, TX v. Laredo Merchants Assoc. Without dissent, the Court held that the City of Laredo’s 2014 ordinance, enacted to create a “trash-free” city, was preempted by the Texas Health & Safety Code and, in particular, Section 361.0961(a)(1)).…
On June 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided what be a very important decision for companies with mining interests in West Virginia, impacting their ability to comply with the Clean Water Act (CWA). Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, et al., v. Pruitt, Administrator of EPA involves claims by several environmental…
On June 20, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided the case of In re: KBR, Inc. Burn Pit Litigation, affirming the ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland that the “political question” doctrine bars the plaintiff servicemembers’ personal injury lawsuits against Kellogg…
On May 19, 2017, the Ninth Circuit, United States v. Washington, affirmed the District Court’s ruling that the State of Washington, in building and maintain culverts that interfered with the Nineteenth Century Treaties with several Indian tribes, violated those treaties, which impelled the District Court to issue an injunction ordering the…
On May 24, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims decided one of what may be many cases involving the terrible flooding wrought by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston, TX region. The Court of Federal Claims has divided thousands of pending claims into “upstream” and “downstream” categories, depending on whether the flooded…
On May 18, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims decided the case of Gadsden Indus. Park, LLC v. U.S., ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was responsible for the “taking” of byproduct materials produced by the steel making process and later purchased by plaintiff Gadsden Industrial Park (GIP) in…
On June 4, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided the case of Hodsdon v. Mars, Inc., and affirmed the District Court’s dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims that, under California law (the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, the unfair competition law, Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17200,…
On June 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided the case of Highway J Citizens Group, et al., v. U. S. Department of Transportation. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the District Court’s oral ruling that the Wisconsin highway renovation project was subject to the U. S. Department of…
On June 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided the case of John Crane, Inc., v. Shein Law Center, LTD and Benjamin Shein, et al., and affirmed the lower court’s ruling in favor of the defendants. The plaintiff filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court…