hazardous waste Archives - Environmental Law Monitor

Bona-Fide Improvement: Ohio Adds BFPP Defense to Hazardous Waste Liability

This summer, Ohio implemented a change in its hazardous waste law that will be welcomed news to purchasers of brownfields. The new law adds a bona-fide prospective purchaser (BFPP) affirmative defense that will make those who qualify for its protections “immune to liability” to the state under the state’s environmental laws. Additionally, the new defense applies retroactively to pending causes of action that started before the law’s effective date.

The concept of a BFPP defense is familiar to purchasers of commercial property, as a similar …

June 14, 2018 CERCLA / New York

Posted by: Goldberg Segalla

NY’s Highest Court Makes it Clear – NYS DEC Has Authority to Unilaterally Remediate Hazardous Waste Sites

In October 2016, New York’s Appellate Division held that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) overstepped its boundaries when it unilaterally undertook the remediation of FMC’s site in Niagara County, New York. FMC Corp. v. New York State Dept. of Envtl. Conservation, 143 A.D.3d 1128 (3d Dept. 2016).

NY’s highest court – the Court of Appeals – smacked down the Appellate Division’s ruling and reversed it.

The facts:

For over 60 years, FMC has owned and operated a 103-acre property in …