EPA Announces New Tenant Protections Under Superfund

| April 30, 2013

EPA has just extended to tenants the Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser (“BFPP”) protection, by which Congress previously exempted certain prospective owners from harsh Superfund liability. Even where the landlord loses its BFPP protection, the new EPA enforcement guidance memo allows tenants to hold onto it, assuming the tenant can meet certain requirements. Traditionally, a tenant derived [...]

EPA to Defend its “Proposed Plan” for Remediating the Gowanus Canal Superfund Site During Public Meetings on January 23 and 24, 2013

| January 21, 2013

How do you clean up something as big and messy as the Gowanus Canal? On January 23-24, 2013,  the United States Environmental Protection Agency will explain and defend its December 27, 2012, “Proposed Plan” for remediating the Gowanus Canal Superfund Site in Brooklyn, NY. The Proposed Plan formally identifies EPA’s “preferred remedy” for the pollution [...]

Can Entering Into a CERCLA Consent Decree Preclude Subsequent Cost Recovery Actions?

| December 4, 2012

Congress enacted the Superfund Act, whose formal name is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA, in 1980 to promote the clean up (remediation) of properties, typically abandoned landfills or other sites, that had been contaminated by the disposal of hazardous materials. To further this goal, Congress cast a wide net and [...]

Environmental Due Diligence in Real Estate Transactions Blog Series: Part I – Introduction

| April 10, 2012

This blog series is based on an article written by James J. Periconi and published in the Winter 2008 Bloomberg Corporate News Journal.  Mr. Periconi also discusses the details and the nuances of environmental due diligence of commercial real estate transactions in his bi-monthly continuing legal education course.  Although we’ve blogged about environmental due diligence [...]

DEC Did Not Act Outside of Its Authority in Promulgating Regulations that Required Cleanup of Contaminated Properties to “Pre-Disposal Conditions” under the State Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Site Act

| December 28, 2011

The Court of Appeals of New York recently held that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) did not exceed its authority or act contrary to state law in enacting certain regulations with respect to remedial programs implemented to clean inactive hazardous waste disposal sites.

Bankruptcy Does Not Discharge All Liability to Cleanup a Contaminated Site: Part II

| November 7, 2011

In our last post, “Bankruptcy Does Not Discharge All Liability to Cleanup a Contaminated Site: Part I,” we discussed the background of In re Mark IV Industries, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110595 (S.D.N.Y., Sept. 28, 2011), describing the events that led up to the filing of the lawsuit and the Bankruptcy Court’s decision.  In [...]

Bankruptcy Does Not Discharge All Liability to Cleanup a Contaminated Site: Part I

| October 31, 2011

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently confirmed that a party’s liability to clean up a contaminated property was not discharged as part of a Chapter 11 reorganization, since such liability was not a “claim” under the Bankruptcy Code. See In re Mark IV Industries, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. [...]

New York Navigation Law Sec 181. Liability. Sections 5 – 6

| January 9, 2007

5. Any claim by any injured person in for the costs of cleanup and removal and direct and indirect damages based on the strict liability imposed by this section may be brought directly against the person who has discharged the petroleum, provided, however,