Chemical & Waste Regulation Practice

Issue Alerts

Supreme Court Holds That Potentially Responsible Parties May Recover Voluntary Cleanup Costs Under CERCLA

Mitch Bernstein, Tyson Kade, Marlys Palumbo
June 14, 2007

On June 11th, the Supreme Court unanimously held the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) permits a potentially responsible party (PRP) that has not been sued or ordered to participate in an administrative proceeding, to recover from other PRPs necessary response costs it incurred voluntarily.

EPA Revises Model Administrative Orders on Consent to Address Supreme Court Decision

Marlys Palumbo, Ivy Anderson
August 30, 2005

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Site Remediation Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Justice published a memorandum detailing immediate interim revisions to three EPA model Administrative Orders on Consent (AOCs). EPA’s position on this matter had been called into question by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Cooper Industries Inc. v. Aviall Services Inc.

Administration Promises Action in Implementation of the SWANCC Decision

Howard Bleichfeld, Paula Dietz, Howard Shapiro
September 27, 2002

Twenty months after the Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Water Act (CWA) does not allow federal agencies to assert jurisdiction over ponds or wetlands that are “not adjacent to open water,” (Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (531 U.S. 159 (2001))) (SWANCC) the Bush Administration is still struggling to decide what exactly is meant by “adjacent,” and how to define “isolated” waters and wetlands which are no longer subject to federal jurisdiction.

Articles

Railroad Transportation of Nuclear Waste and Other Hazardous Materials

Michael McBride
The Electricity Journal
April 2008

Railroads continue to have duties to shippers and the public, and they may not take the law into their own hands. Except for emergencies – and then only for the duration of the emergency – they must carry all commodities without regard to whether they are dangerous, unless the proper agency of the federal government has relieved them of that obligation.