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Mealey's Pollution Liability

  • November 12, 2025

    Companies’ Preemption Argument In Climate Change Suit SCOTUS Petition Challenged

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two Colorado municipalities argue that the U.S. Supreme Court should reject a petition for writ of certiorari filed by a group of oil and gas companies asking if federal law precludes state law claims for relief for alleged damages to infrastructure and resources by contributing to greenhouse gas emissions because the petitioners attempted “to leverage an alleged conflict on a different preemption question to force a decision on a constitutional theory they have yet to convince any appellate court to adopt.”

  • November 12, 2025

    Jurisdiction Lacking In PFAS Water Pollution Case, Defendant Says

    WHEELING, W.Va. — A defendant in a lawsuit seeking to recover the costs associated with removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have tainted local sources of drinking water under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act has filed a motion in West Virginia federal court arguing that the case should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction because the plaintiff fails to allege that the defendant has sufficient contact with West Virginia.

  • November 11, 2025

    Illinois Federal Judge Transfers Clean Trucks Suit To Calif. To Join Similar Cases

    ROCKFORD, Ill. — Citing “the convenience of parties and the interests of justice,” a federal judge in Illinois transferred a lawsuit challenging a partnership agreement between the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and major manufacturers of trucks and engines to phase out internal combustion engines in the heavy-duty vehicle sector from the Northern District of Illinois to the Eastern District of California, where similar claims are undergoing litigation.

  • November 07, 2025

    Federal Judge Upholds Abeyance Of Power Plant Exemption Suit Amid EPA Rule Repeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge denied a motion filed by a group of environmental nonprofits to reconsider holding in abeyance a lawsuit the groups filed against President Donald J. Trump and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a proclamation that exempts nearly one-third of the country’s coal-fired power plants from pollution standards promulgated in 2024 that target “highly toxic substances” in light of the EPA’s plan to repeal the rule.

  • November 06, 2025

    Styrofoam Materials Producer Will Pay Over $5M To Settle Pa. River Pollution Suit

    PITTSBURGH — The owner and operator of a Pennsylvania expandable polystyrene manufacturing facility will pay more than $5 million in civil penalties and other payments and implement a series of measures to curtail the discharge of millions of tiny pellets known as “nurdles” into the Ohio River to settle a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit filed by two environmental nonprofits in federal district court.

  • November 06, 2025

    Smelter Operator Petitions 9th Circuit To Rehear CERCLA Damages Reversal

    SPOKANE, Wash.— The operator of a lead-zinc smelter in British Columbia allegedly responsible for disposing millions of tons of toxic slag and liquid effluent into the Columbia River says the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should reconsider a ruling that revived claims made by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation “for over a half billion dollars” for cultural resource damages under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.

  • November 05, 2025

    Federal Judge Enjoins Calif. From Imposing Some Clean Truck Regs In Emissions Suit

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal judge in California enjoined the California Air Resources Board (CARB) from implementing or enforcing the state’s Clean Truck Partnership (CTP) but allowed it to continue enforcing other heavy-duty vehicle emissions programs and state directives during litigation of a lawsuit filed by heavy-duty vehicle and engine developers challenging enforcement of the standards pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA).

  • November 05, 2025

    Texas Files Federal Suit Under CERCLA For Cyanide Cleanup At Waste Storage Site

    LUBBOCK, Texas — In a lawsuit filed in federal court, Texas seeks reimbursement pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of costs incurred for responding to and cleaning up potentially hazardous drums of cyanide waste at an environmental waste storage site.

  • November 03, 2025

    N.Y. Federal Judge Denies Nonprofits’ Motion To Intervene In Climate Change Act Suit

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York denied a request from several nonprofit grassroots organizations focused on climate change and the environment to intervene as defendants in a lawsuit filed by the United States against New York over the state’s Climate Change Superfund Act, holding that the groups’ interests are adequately represented by the state, but granted their request to file an amicus curiae brief against the government’s motion for summary judgment.

  • October 31, 2025

    D.C. Federal Judge Stays CERCLA Suit Dismissal Briefing Amid Shutdown Funding Lapse

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The deadline for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to reply to a group of environmental nonprofit organizations’ opposition to a motion to partially dismiss and transfer a lawsuit filed in District of Columbia federal court over the implementation of cleanup activities that allegedly violated requirements of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 and other federal directives is stayed until restoration of appropriations for U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) operations that expired due to the government shutdown.

  • October 30, 2025

    Wash. Federal Judge Remands Climate Change Heat Wave Death Suit To State Court

    SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington ruled that a company that owns a pipeline within the state was not fraudulently joined to a lawsuit filed by the daughter of a Seattle woman who died from extreme heat “directly linked to fossil fuel-driven alteration of the climate” and remanded the case to state court, holding that the federal court “lacks subject matter jurisdiction where the parties are not diverse and the removal was premised on diversity jurisdiction.”

  • October 30, 2025

    Split North Carolina High Court Grants DuPont A Stay In State’s PFAS Case

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A divided North Carolina Supreme Court on Oct. 29 granted a stay to E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. and its affiliates in a lawsuit brought by the North Carolina attorney general related to contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).  The majority did not elaborate on its decision, but in a dissent, Justice Anita Earls wrote that “DuPont’s own dilatory conduct undermines that such an immediate temporary stay is necessary.”

  • October 29, 2025

    Defendant In PFAS Drinking Water Case Says CERCLA Claims Lack Sufficient Facts

    WHEELING, W.Va. — A defendant in a lawsuit by plaintiffs seeking to recover the costs associated with removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have tainted local sources of drinking water under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) on Oct. 28 filed a brief arguing that the case should be dismissed for failure to state a claim. The defendant says that the plaintiffs “do not make plausible allegations of facts sufficient to support their causes of action.”

  • October 29, 2025

    N.Y. Justice: State Agency Must Meet Climate Act Conditions, Issue Rules By Feb. 6

    ALBANY, N.Y. — A New York trial court justice ruled that a state agency failed to promulgate a series of stringent greenhouse gas emissions standards designed to combat the effects of climate change and now must issue regulations and rules to meet its statutory obligation under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) by Feb. 6 in granting a petition filed by a group of environmental nonprofits.

  • October 28, 2025

    Oregon Federal Judge OKs River Contamination Cleanup Decrees Amid Intervenor Qualms

    PORTLAND, Ore. — A litany of past and present owners and operators of shipping and manufacturing facilities that were sued by the United States and a group of trustee organizations and tribes for allegedly contaminating the Willamette River through operations performed in the Portland Harbor over the last century will pay more than $36 million to restore habitats and reimburse litigation and other costs after a federal judge in Oregon granted a motion to enter two consent decrees despite objections from several intervenors.

  • October 27, 2025

    Tenn. City To Pay Damages, Penalties To Settle Federal Suit Over Plant Discharges

    COOKEVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee city that violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) and its state-issued National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit by illegally discharging pollutants from its sewage treatment plant into the Cumberland River agreed to pay nearly $80,000 in civil penalties and more than $7,800 in damages and to spearhead a series of remediation actions to settle a lawsuit filed by an environmental nonprofit organization in federal court.

  • October 24, 2025

    Groups Sue Trump, EPA For Tapping CAA Rule To Impose Air Pollution Exemption Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Several nonprofit and grassroots environmental organizations are suing President Donald J. Trump and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in federal court in the District of Columbia over a recent federal proclamation that exempts for two years 50 chemical manufacturing plants from requirements to control and monitor hazardous, cancer-causing air pollutants, alleging the president is overstepping the bounds of his lawful authority and violating the Clean Air Act (CAA).

  • October 24, 2025

    Federal Judge In N.Y. Consolidates Similar Suits Challenging Climate Change Act

    SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act will be consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York per request of the defendants “because [the cases] involve common question of law or fact and because consolidation is in the interest of judicial economy.”

  • October 23, 2025

    Chemours Paints ‘Distorted’ Portrait In PFAS Case, Group Tells 4th Circuit

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An environmental advocacy group on Oct. 22 filed a response brief in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that The Chemours Co. FC LLC paints a “distorted and inaccurate portrait” of a trial court’s decision that granted the group a preliminary injunction in a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination case, saying the lower court decision does not disregard U.S. Supreme Court injunction precedent.

  • October 21, 2025

    Youths Appeal Montana Federal Judge’s Dismissal Of ‘Energy Emergency’ Orders Suit

    BUTTE, Mont. — A group of 22 minors and young adults who sued President Donald J. Trump and a litany of government agencies seeking to rescind and declare unconstitutional a series of executive orders that include directives to increase fossil fuel production filed a notice of appeal on Oct. 20 of a Montana federal judge’s dismissal of their claims for failure to establish standing.

  • October 20, 2025

    Judge Reserves Ruling In CERCLA Canal Pollution Case Pending Settlement Talks

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York agreed to hold off on issuing a ruling on summary judgment cross-motions filed by the Brooklyn Union Gas Co. and a litany of defendants the utility sued under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act for allegedly releasing hazardous substances into the Gowanus Canal to give the parties more time to negotiate settlement agreements.

  • October 16, 2025

    Federal Judge ‘Reluctantly’ Dismisses Youths’ Fossil Fuel Executive Orders Suit

    BUTTE, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana “reluctantly” ruled Oct. 15 to dismiss a lawsuit filed by 22 minors and young adults against President Donald J. Trump and multiple government agencies seeking to rescind and declare unconstitutional a series of executive orders that include directives to increase fossil fuel production, opining that the plaintiffs failed to establish standing.

  • October 16, 2025

    City Says Its PFAS Case Does Not Belong In MDL For AFFF, Seeks Remand To Wisconsin

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — Wausau, Wis., has filed a reply brief in South Carolina federal court in support of its motion to remand the city’s lawsuit against the makers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), arguing that the city’s claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) are asserted against only local defendants and that the case should not be included in the multidistrict litigation for the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF).

  • October 16, 2025

    Wash. Cities, Yacht Club Lodge Consent Decree In Federal Stormwater Runoff Suit

    TACOMA, Wash. — The cities of University Place and Tacoma, Wash., agreed to implement remediation actions, vacate property and rights-of-way and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees to resolve a citizen suit filed in Washington federal court by a yacht club alleging violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for polluting recreational waters and Puget Sound with untreated surface water.

  • October 15, 2025

    West Virginia Mining Company Agrees To Pay Nearly $75K To Settle Federal CWA Suit

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A mining company that violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) by operating mining sites while its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit modifications were pending will pay nearly $75,000 to several environmental groups for remediation efforts and attorney fees and costs to settle a citizen suit the groups filed against it in West Virginia federal court.