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Mealey's Pollution Liability

  • April 18, 2025

    Executive, Companies Plead Guilty To Negligent Conduct That Caused Worker’s Death

    AUSTIN, Texas — The U.S. Department of Justice announced that an oilfield company executive, his company and another company have pleaded guilty to violations of multiple federal laws in relation to the release of hazardous gas from hydraulic fracturing drilling operations that resulted in the deaths of an employee and his wife. The executive will serve five months in prison and the companies will pay a total $1.4 million in fines.

  • April 17, 2025

    Groups Say Iron Works Has Polluted Groundwater With Stormwater Discharges

    SAN DIEGO — Environmental groups have sued an ironworking company in California federal court arguing that it is liable for contamination of local groundwater because it has discharged, and continues to discharge, polluted stormwater from its facility to downstream waters and groundwater in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA).

  • April 16, 2025

    EPA Appeals Grant Funding Freeze Suit After Nonprofits Get Preliminary Injunction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed a notice of appeal on April 16 to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking to overturn a federal judge’s order that granted a preliminary injunction enjoining the EPA from effectuating the termination of National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) grants to three nonprofit financial organizations and a group of state “green banks” and ordered the bank that administers the grants to “disburse any funds properly incurred” prior to the EPA’s suspension of the grant program in mid-February.

  • April 16, 2025

    Groups Request Extra Response Time In High Court CAA Penalty Case; Exxon Objects

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two environmental nonprofits on April 15 asked for more time to adequately prepare a response to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by ExxonMobil asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review an order issued by a “fractured” en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that requires the company to pay a $14.25 million penalty for alleged air pollution incidents at a Texas facility.

  • April 15, 2025

    Alaskan Tribes Say Corps Issued Gold Mining Project Permit That Violates CWA, NEPA

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Three native Alaskan tribes are asking a federal judge to vacate a permit the U.S. Army Corps issued to a company planning a five-year gold mining project in the Bonanza Channel, alleging that they violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to fully evaluate the environmental effects of the proposed project.

  • April 15, 2025

    Nonprofits Sue Federal Agencies Over Removal Of Climate Change, Environmental Sites

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of environmental nonprofits on April 14 sued several federal agencies over the recent removal of “webpages that served as key sources for information about environmental justice and climate change,” alleging violations of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) and Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

  • April 14, 2025

    U.S. Ends ‘Environmental Justice’ Deal Targeting Low-Income Ala. Wastewater Issues

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pursuant to an executive order issued by President Donald J. Trump, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division announced in a press release issued April 11 the effective termination of an interim resolution agreement that implemented remedies to address discrimination against residents of a low-income Alabama county through the state and local health departments’ onsite wastewater disposal efforts.

  • April 14, 2025

    5th Circuit: SNAP Program User Data Can’t Be Disclosed To Water System Manager

    NEW ORLEANS — The creation of a new water rate pricing structure in Jackson, Miss., that provides discounts to recipients of benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) did not constitute a federal assistance program and, therefore, the city’s water system operator is not entitled to access of SNAP recipients’ personal data as part of the efforts to implement the new rates, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled.

  • April 11, 2025

    EPA Continues Arguing Jurisdiction, Cites High Court Case In Grant Freeze Lawsuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says in a reply in support of its notice of an order in a case involving another federal agency that three nonprofit financial organizations and a group of state “green banks” prove in their responses to the notice that a lawsuit filed in District of Columbia federal court to regain access to National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) money that was frozen by the new federal administration “is a contract dispute over which the Court lacks jurisdiction.”

  • April 09, 2025

    Plaintiffs Say Objections To Ore. Water Contamination Case Findings Lack Merit

    PENDLETON, Ore. — A group of residents who sued the port of Morrow and several agricultural companies pursuant to Oregon state law and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for alleged contamination of groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin say a federal magistrate judge’s findings of fact and recommendation stating they can pursue most of their claims for relief should be entirely adopted and that a litany of objections made by the defendants does not have merit.

  • April 08, 2025

    Petitions Filed Against CWA Permits For Tennessee Pipeline Denied In 6th Circuit

    CINCINNATI — Construction of a Tennessee natural gas pipeline can proceed as planned following a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s denial of two petitions to vacate Clean Water Act (CWA) permits for the project, with the majority finding that the issuing agencies complied with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), “adequately assessed” and “adequately evaluated” the applications and “reasonably explained [their] Pipeline-related decision making.”

  • April 07, 2025

    Calif. Cities Want Discharge Case Reconsideration, Cite High Court CWA Decision

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Two California cities are asking a federal judge to reconsider a barrage of rulings issued in favor of an environmental organization that sued them for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) through the discharge of bacteria pollution from stormwater sewage systems based on a recent decision in a U.S. Supreme Court case regarding National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permittee requirements.

  • April 03, 2025

    Parties Ink Settlement In Georgia Watershed Police Training Facility CWA Case

    ATLANTA — Through a settlement approved by a Georgia federal judge, Atlanta and its nonprofit police foundation will spearhead remediation efforts and pay attorney fees to an environmental group over allegations that stormwater runoff from construction of a law enforcement training facility polluted the South River watershed and violated the Clean Water Act.

  • April 03, 2025

    2 Denials, 1 Remand Of EPA State Air Quality Plan Petitions In 5th Circuit

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied petitions for review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s disapproval of state implementation plans (SIPs) for Louisiana and Texas, finding that they failed to prove that the plans complied with the 2015 eight-hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), but granted a petition filed by Mississippi, finding that the agency’s original disapproval of its plan was unlawful.

  • April 02, 2025

    Attorney Notifies High Court Of 5th Circuit Decision In EPA Air Quality Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An attorney representing Oklahoma and Utah in a U.S. Supreme Court case about the proper venue to hear challenges to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s disapproval of state implementation plans (SIPs) for new air quality standards has steered the justices to a recent Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s decision to take up and rule on three similar petitions for review.

  • April 01, 2025

    Insurer, Reinsurer Seek To Oppose Reconsideration Of Cleanup Case Production Ruling

    PADUCAH, Ky. — An insurer and reinsurer seek leave from a Kentucky federal magistrate judge to file an opposition to a ferrosilicon producer’s motion for reconsideration of a January ruling that denied the producer’s motion to compel production of documents from the insurers in a dispute over pollution-related cleanup costs; they argue in their reply in support of their motion for leave that the motion for reconsideration violates at least two prior orders and improperly raises new arguments.

  • March 31, 2025

    SEC Votes To End Defense Of Climate Disclosure Rules, Informs 8th Circuit

    ST. LOUIS — The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to end its defense of its rules requiring companies to disclose climate-related risks and greenhouse gas emissions and has informed the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it is withdrawing its defense of the rules in a case brought against the SEC by several states challenging the rules and no longer authorizes SEC counsel to advance the arguments set forth in the commission’s brief, which was filed before the change in presidential administrations.

  • March 31, 2025

    Calif. Panel Reverses Dismissal Of Claims In Dry-Cleaning PCE Pollution Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California appellate court panel granted a writ of mandate ordering a Superior Court judge to vacate a ruling that dismissed claims of liability and negligence brought by Modesto, Calif., and some of its municipal agencies over perchloroethylene (PCE) contamination at a former dry-cleaning site.

  • March 27, 2025

    Judge Denies Norfolk Southern’s Motion To Dismiss Securities Fraud Class Action

    ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern Corp. and its principal’s motion to dismiss investors’ securities fraud class action relating to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was denied by a federal judge in Ohio, who found that the investors’ allegations raised an “overwhelming” inference of scienter.

  • March 26, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Hears Venue Arguments In Cross-State Ozone Pollution Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — During oral arguments in two consolidated cases heard March 25 by the U.S. Supreme Court, an attorney representing Oklahoma and Utah contended that according to a specific part of the Clean Air Act (CAA), challenges to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s disapproval of state implementation plans for new air quality standards are “locally or regionally applicable,” but the EPA argued that the statute says otherwise.

  • March 25, 2025

    EPA, Refineries Debate Proper Venue For CAA Fuel Standards Rule In High Court  

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 25 heard competing arguments as to whether the venue for several small oil refineries' challenges to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s denial of requests for exemption from the Clean Air Act’s (CAA’s) Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS) program lies exclusively in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals because the agency's denial actions are “nationally applicable” or “based on a determination of nationwide scope or effect.”

  • March 25, 2025

    U.S. To Pay $250K To Aerospace Company In California Airport Pollution Dispute

    LOS ANGELES — Through a $250,000 consent decree filed in California federal court, the United States will compensate an aerospace company “for a fair portion” of costs it incurred under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act responding to contamination from hazardous substances it allegedly released at a Los Angeles County airport.

  • March 24, 2025

    Divided Arguments Sought For Respondents In High Court Emissions Standards Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Acting Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris want the U.S. Supreme Court to divide the arguments of the federal agency and a group of state and local government respondents led by California in a dispute over whether the EPA has the authority to waive new Clean Air Act (CAA) standards for automobile emissions as they apply to California.

  • March 21, 2025

    Conn. Panel Says Owner Who Violated CWA By Filling Wetlands Liable For Remediation

    NEW YORK — A Connecticut landowner who violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by filling in protected wetlands on his property without a permit and not adhering to warnings and notices from various federal agencies is liable for remediation of the property, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.

  • March 19, 2025

    D.C. Judge Halts EPA Grant Freeze, Consolidates Clean Energy Nonprofits’ Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia partially granted a motion for a temporary restraining order on March 18 barring a bank tasked with administering federal grant awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from freezing funds promised to three nonprofit financial organizations that leverage money for clean energy projects, in three recently consolidated cases.