North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
The failure to plead that a defendant was cited for a legal or regulatory violation was fatal to standing to bring a claim under the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act, but the trial court was required to dismiss the claim without ...
Read More »Environmental — SPCA – Failure to Plead Citation for Violation of Law – Standing – Dismissal with Prejudice
Environmental – Administrative – Pollutant Discharge Permit – Biological Integrity – Agency Interpretation 
The respondent Department of Environmental Quality’s Standard Operating Procedures do not require a particular type of analysis to be done for a permit application; instead, the staff of DEQ uses its expertise to determine what types of testing or ...
Read More »Environmental – Administrative – Landfill Operator – Civil Practice – Mootness
After this court upheld an order requiring defendant to submit a permit application as an operator of a landfill, the Environmental Management Commission proposed a new rule governing hazardous waste generators. This court’s determination was made under 40 C.F.R. ...
Read More »Environmental – Dominion Energy prevails in Clean Water Act appeal
The Sierra Club sued Dominion Energy under the citizen-suit provision of the Clean Water Act. Following a bench trial, the district court found that rainwater and groundwater were leaching arsenic from the coal ash in the landfill and settling ponds, ...
Tagged with: Energy
Read More »Environmental – State Law Preempts Local Wastewater Rule
EQT Production Co. v. Wender (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-179-17, 32 pp.) (Harris, J.) No. 16-1938, Aug. 30, 2017; USDC at Charleston W.Va. (Copenhaver, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A West Virginia county’s local ordinance prohibiting the disposal of wastewater from plaintiff ...
Tagged with: Wastewater
Read More »Environmental — Court Used Wrong Standard for Bear Treatment
Hill v. Coggins (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-168-17, 33 pp.) (Floyd, J.) No. 16-1457, Aug. 14, 2017; USDC at Bryson City, NC. (Reidinger, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: Two patrons, members of a local Cherokee tribe, who visited defendants’ Cherokee Bear ...
Tagged with: Animal Welfare Act grizzly bears
Read More »Environmental — Court Reverses Coal Company Clean Air Win
Murray Energy Corp. v. Adm’r of the Environmental Protection Agency (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-149-17, 17 pp.) (Floyd, J.) No. 16-2432, June 29, 2017; USDC at Wheeling, W.Va. (Bailey, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A district court did not have jurisdiction to ...
Tagged with: Clean Air Act EPA regulation
Read More »Environmental – Landfill Operator – Closed Site – Permitting Requirements
WASCO LLC v. N.C. Department of Environment & Natural Resources (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-126-17, 22 pp.) (Douglas McCullough, J.) Appealed from Wake County Superior Court (G. Bryan Collins Jr., J.) N.C. App. Holding: Even though the site of soil contaminated ...
Tagged with: Permits
Read More »Environmental – State Did Not Own Segment of Riverbed
State of North Carolina v. Alcoa Power Generating Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-082-17, 64 pp.) (Niemeyer, J.) No. 15-2225, April 3, 2017; USDC at Raleigh, N.C. (Boyle, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: The State of North Carolina loses its appeal of ...
Tagged with: river
Read More »Environmental – CERCLA Won’t Save Surface Owners’ Suit
Blankenship v. Consolidation Coal Co. (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-071-17, 18 pp.) (Niemeyer, J.) No. 15-2480, March 9, 2017; USDC at Abingdon, Va. (Jones, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: Plaintiffs, who own property over portions of the Beatrice Mine in Buchanan County, ...
Tagged with: CERCLA
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