In a reversal of a decision by the New Jersey District Court, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in In re Congoleum Corporation held 2-1 that the bankruptcy court did not have jurisdiction to reopen an earlier proceeding to interpret findings within a confirmation order, holding interpretation of such orders constitutes a bankruptcy core proceeding.  Chief Judge Chagares also reversed the district court as to the effect of that confirmation order in CERCLA proceedings currently pending before the district court. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Bankruptcy, CERCLA, Cleanup, Contamination, Contribution, Cost Recovery, New Jersey, Potentially Responsible Parties, Superfund, Third Circuit

This post was written by MGKF summer associate Kennedy Reardon

On July 17, 2025, the Second Circuit issued an opinion in ELG Utica Alloys, Inc. v. Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. affirming an order granting summary judgment against ELG Utica Alloys, Inc.’s (“ELG”) in its CERCLA cost recovery suit, on the grounds that the applicable six-year statute of limitations had expired.  The decision is significant because it establishes a rule in the Second Circuit that, for a multi-phase remediation involving a single source of contamination at a single “facility,” the statute of limitations begins to run at the initiation of the first phase of cleanup. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: CERCLA, Contamination, Cost Recovery, New York, Remediation, Second Circuit, Superfund

On May 1, 2025, the United Stated District Court for the Northern District of California evaluated a settlement agreement between a long-time generator of hazardous substances, an innocent plaintiff, and the Department of Toxic Substances Control (“DTSC”), and found that it met the requirements as a good faith agreement under both the California Code of Civil Procedure and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”).  See Maxim L Properties v. Moyer Products, Ind., 2025 WL 1261419.  The court ruled that a settlement agreement that, among other things, accounts for the “rough approximation” of liability is generally satisfactory in both California and under CERCLA. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Allocation, California, Certification, Cleanup, Consent Decree, Contamination, Contribution, Cost Recovery, Good Faith Settlement, Potentially Responsible Parties, Remediation, Superfund

Last month in Atlantic Richfield Company v. NL Industries, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that plaintiff Atlantic Richfield’s action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) was timely, reversing the District Court’s determination applying the statute of limitations for cost recovery actions and granting summary judgment to the defendant NL Industries entities on that basis. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: CERCLA, Contribution, Cost Recovery, Potentially Responsible Parties, Statute of Limitations, Superfund, Tenth Circuit

In joint tortfeasor settlements in private party actions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”), courts can choose from two competing federal contribution protection methods: the Uniform Comparative Fault Act (“UCFA”), known as pro rata, and the Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act (“UCATA”), known as pro tanto.  Last month, in City of Las Cruces and Dona Ana County v The Lofts of Alameda, LLC, Civil Action No. 2:17-cv-00809-JCH-GBW, 2024 WL 4512434, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico considered the merits of both contribution protection methods and concluded that the pro rata approach was the most equitable under the circumstances.  Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Allocation, CERCLA, Contribution, Cost Recovery, Good Faith Settlement, New Mexico, Potentially Responsible Parties, Solvents, Superfund

In Barclay Lofts LLC v. PPG Industries, Inc., Case No. 20-CV-1694, 2024 WL 4224731 (E.D. Wis. Sept. 18, 2024), a United States District Court in Wisconsin, after deciding several threshold issues under CERCLA, allocated liability for past and future response costs to clean up a contaminated site based upon a detailed analysis of the operational and material handling practices of the potentially responsible parties.  The decision offers insights about the facts that a court may find compelling and the factors that a court may apply to reach an equitable CERCLA allocation among responsible parties. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Allocation, CERCLA, Cleanup, Contamination, Contribution, Cost Recovery, Operator Liability, Owner Liability, PCBs, Potentially Responsible Parties, Remediation, Solvents, Superfund

On September 27, 2024, in Short Creek Development, LLC v. MFA Incorporated, No. 22-05021-CV-SW-WBG, 2024 WL 4326815 (W.D. Mo. Sept. 27, 2024), Magistrate Judge W. Brian Gaddy determined Plaintiffs’ claim under Section 107(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) was barred by the applicable statute of limitations as “physical on-site construction of the remedial action” occurred more than six years prior to when Plaintiffs brought their lawsuit.  Specifically, the Magistrate Judge found that costs related to a leachate collection system constructed approximately a year before the adoption of a Record of Decision (“ROD”) amendment outlining a permanent remedy for the Orongo-Duenweg Mining Belt Superfund Site (the “Site”) was the beginning of the six-year limitations period.   In doing so, the Court rejected adoption of a “bright-line” rule that remedial actions begun before adoption of a final remedial plan do not trigger the limitations period.  Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: CERCLA, Cleanup, Contamination, Cost Recovery, Groundwater, Landfill, Mining, Missouri, Remediation, Removal, Statute of Limitations, Superfund, Waste

This entry was authored by MGKF Summer Associate Karina Zakarian

On June 25, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in a case of first impression, vacated the United States District Court for the District of Maryland’s holding in 68th Street Site Work Group v. Alban Tractor Company et al., No. 23-1155 (4th Cir. Jun. 25, 2024), that arranger liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (“CERCLA”) requires a potentially responsible party to have knowledge that the waste it discards is hazardous. Rather, the Fourth Circuit found that the mere intent to dispose of waste suffices to establish liability under CERCLA. According to the Court, imposing scienter on arrangers of waste disposal would contradict both legislative intent and the strict liability scheme governing superfund site remediation. Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: Arranger Liability, CERCLA, Contribution, Fourth Circuit, Landfill, Maryland, Superfund, Waste

On May 7, 2024, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey denied Defendant ISP Environmental Service Inc.’s (“IES”) motion to dismiss the United States’ (“the Government”) complaint seeking relief under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (“CERCLA”). United States v. ISP Envt’l Servs. Inc., 2024 WL 2013949 (D.N.J. 2024).  IES had argued in support of its motion to dismiss that it was neither an owner or operator of the site at issue, and therefore, was not a potentially responsible party under CERCLA.   The district court nevertheless held that IES was potentially liable under CERCLA as the corporate successor of another entity that had owned and operated the site, GAF Chemicals, because the Government plausibly alleged that IES assumed the liabilities for the site pursuant to a contract with GAF Chemicals.    Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: CERCLA, Cost Recovery, Successor Liability, Superfund

Cost-recovery and contribution lawsuits under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) can sometimes drag on for several years, or longer, because of the multitude of potentially responsible parties (PRPs), the often-separate liability and allocation phases, and appeals of rulings decided at each phase, among other complications.  The recent decision in Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP et al. v. NCR Corp., 1:11-cv-483 (W.D. Mich.), highlights the winding and prolonged paths that some of these cases can take.  Read More »

Share | Email| Comments|  Topics: CERCLA, Contribution, Cost Recovery, Potentially Responsible Parties, Superfund