Tag Archives: CERCLA

EPA Takes Action: PFOA and PFOS Now Hazardous Substances Under Superfund Law

By Stuart Kaplow on April 21, 2024 Posted in Environmental, Federal

PFAS is no doubt a developing environmental catastrophe but this just announced EPA action listing PFAS as a hazardous substance in the U.S. is yeeting the matter without regard that this solution may do more harm than good.… Continue Reading

Supreme Court Permits State Law Claims Against Superfund Property

By Stuart Kaplow on April 26, 2020 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental

In an instructive environmental law decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal Superfund statute (the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act) does not preclude owners of adjacent contaminated land from pursuing state laws claims for money damages for nuisance, trespass and strict liability, but any cleanup of that land cannot … Continue Reading

Phase l Assessments for Tenants are the Hottest Environmental Issue in 2020

By Stuart Kaplow on January 19, 2020 Posted in Environmental, Federal

The hottest environmental topic for business in 2020, as a result of an amendment to the Superfund law for the first time making clear that tenants can qualify as bona fide prospective purchasers, protected from cleanup costs from the presence of hazardous substances on a property, is prospective tenants are now ordering Phase l Environmental … Continue Reading

Tenants Order Phase l to Avoid Hazardous Substance Liability

By Stuart Kaplow on March 31, 2019 Posted in Environmental, Federal

It has been a year since the omnibus spending bill signed on March 23, 2018 amended the Superfund law, for first time making clear that tenants can qualify as bona fide prospective purchasers, protected from cleanup costs from the presence of hazardous substances on a property; but tenants are only now beginning to order Phase … Continue Reading

Tenant’s New Defense to Hazardous Substance Liability

By Stuart Kaplow on December 2, 2018 Posted in Environmental, Federal

Buried in the omnibus spending bill signed earlier this year were amendments to the Superfund law that for the first time make clear that tenants can qualify as bona fide prospective purchasers, protected from cleanup costs from the presence of hazardous substances on a property. The Consolidated Appropriations Act signed on March 23, 2018 included … Continue Reading

You Should Not Contract With Your Environmental Consultant

By Stuart Kaplow on August 13, 2017 Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental

In an effort to mitigate risk you should not contract directly with an environmental consultant, but rather your attorney should contract with that consultant. While laws vary from state to state, in the vast majority of factual situations a business or property owner is ill served by contracting directly with a third party for most … Continue Reading

Pollution Legal Liability Insurance More Valuable as a Result of High Court Ruling

By Stuart Kaplow on February 12, 2014 Posted in Insurance, Sustainability

Insurance companies cannot recover environmental cleanup costs paid to their insured under the federal CERCLA, commonly known as Superfund, from another Potentially Responsible Party, .. and, having the result of making environmental insurance more valuable.… Continue Reading

Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business