The Massachusetts Appeals Court (the intermediate appellate court) has decided two cases this month addressing when a local conservation commission can impose conditions on development that affects wetlands in addition
Continue Reading Local Preemption and Wetlands in Massachusetts
A review of the environmental cases decided by the Pennsylvania appellate courts last year follows. Please forgive any omissions of cases or detail in this catalogue. Many of these cases
Continue Reading Environmental Cases in the Pennsylvania Appellate Courts in 2021
This is an update to a 2019 post.
Section 1113 of the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (“HSCA”), 35 Pa. Stat. Ann. § 6020.1113, authorizes settlements of responsible parties’
Continue Reading Pennsylvania Prospective Purchaser Agreements: Emphasis on ‘Prospective’
Last month, I wrote about the “Environmental Justice for All Act,” a bill that proposes a finding that vulnerable populations are disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards. New Jersey is
Continue Reading New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Legislation: The Focus on Major Source Permit Applications Might Impact Property Values
Part 2 of this series on the large number of environmental cases decided by the Pennsylvania appellate courts in 2018 discusses enforcement, the Oil and Gas Act, valuation, and a
Continue Reading Significant Environmental Cases in Pa. Courts During 2018 (Part 2)
The Commonwealth Court recently provided new guidance on the extent to which the Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution gives municipalities or agencies additional powers or imposes on them
Continue Reading Staying in Lane Under the Environmental Rights Amendment
Soil or groundwater cleanups can take a long time. When one person conducts the cleanup and another has an interest in its completion, the two can disagree over the pace
Continue Reading Potential New Tools to Sue for a Faster Cleanup
In two recent decisions, Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui and EQT Production v. Department of Environmental Protection, courts have considered the nuances of “water‐to-water theory” and what
Continue Reading Five Questions Likely to Flow From ‘Water-to-Water’ Cases
The current federal administration has expressed a desire to defer largely to states through principles of cooperative federalism. A recent case involving the dune construction in Margate, New Jersey, offers
Continue Reading The Margate Dune Project, Cooperative Federalism, and Problems of Litigation Procedure