Your Guide to Emerging Issues in Environmental Regulation and Litigation.
As the virus pandemic has consumed our daily news, even some of the most important developments in the environmental world seem to have floated under the radar. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an initial regulatory determination under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)—the two most notorious substances in the family …
Earlier this month, the Trump Administration released its Fiscal Year 2021 Budget requests. As it has in previous years, the administration has proposed steep cuts in funding for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Other agencies, such as the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers …
In 2003, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency had over 1,200 employees, including engineers, chemists, biologists, and attorneys. Last year, that number had been reduced to 639, according to a new report. “Protecting Illinois EPA’s Health, so that It Can Protect Ours,” published by the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic staff, documents reductions in staff and budget …
Michigan could be the first state in the nation to establish maximum contaminant levels for the chemical, GenX. This comes after a Science Advisory Workgroup, made up of three environmental and health experts, listed GenX among seven chemicals deserving of regulation in the state’s drinking water in late June. Although it gained notoriety for contaminating …
While covenants not to sue purport to provide some security to settling parties, in CERCLA actions, reopener provisions, which the EPA includes in most consent decrees, allow for future liability for unforeseen and unknown conditions that arise following completion of the remedial actions. As a result of these reopener provisions, which became required in all but a few limited circumstances after the 1986 CERCLA amendments, parties that settle CERCLA claims live with the …
This blog frequently addresses emerging contaminants, most prominently the PFAS compounds and 1,4-dioxane. As these chemicals become more notorious through testing, regulation, and public scrutiny, they’ll likely become more prolific factors in the purchase and sale of real estate. As our readers know, PFAS is almost ubiquitous: it is nearly everywhere (in varying concentrations). As …
It is well-known in toxic tort and environmental legal circles that plaintiffs have inherent difficulties when seeking to certify a class of “injured” plaintiffs. Individualized issues of causation, exposure, and damages pervade just about all cases — and courts have long recognized this. Our blog posted recently on the medical monitoring PFOA class action in …
Join Goldberg Segalla’s John A. Lee on June 12, 2018 at Perrin Conferences Environmental Risk and Litigation Conference in New York City, which will cover topics such as “The Trump Administration’s Impacts on Environmental Litigation” and “PFAS: Evolution from Emerging Contaminant to Frequent Headliner.” John will be part of a panel discussion titled “The Environmental Impact of Climate Change.” …
We’ve posted on several occasions about the ongoing litigation over GenX contamination emanating from the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility along the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. The damages that defendants typically face in these trending water contamination actions arise not only from cleanup costs to the waterbody at issue, but from the impact to the …
In November, we reported on New Jersey’s adoption of the lowest Maximum Contaminant Limits (14 parts per trillion) for PFOAs (perfluorooctanoic acid) in the nation. And a few weeks ago, we reported on the New Jersey scientists that are urging the state to impose a strict limit of 13 ppt for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) as …