Environmental Law

— By Staff ReportJune 2, 20150 Comments

Wisconsin District Court Resuscitates Divisibility Defense Under CERCLA?

This blog post is dedicated to the divisibility defense available under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”). The specter CERCLA liability strikes fear in the eyes of any potentially responsible party (“PRP”). This is due, in part, to the fact that liability…

Environmental Law

— By Staff ReportJanuary 4, 20150 Comments

Fracking Comes to Illinois; Drilling Into the Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act

On June 17, 2013, the Illinois Assembly enacted the Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act. See Public Act 098-0022. This Act empowered the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (“Department”) to regulate hydraulic fracturing in throughout the State of Illinois. This blog entry summarizes key aspects of this…

Business Law Environmental Law

— By Staff ReportDecember 11, 20140 Comments

EPA Revises RCRA Definition of Solid Waste

On December 10 2014, EPA pre-published certain revisions to RCRA’s definition of solid waste. This is a pre-published version of the final rule that EPA is submitting for publication in the Federal Register. The final rule is of greatest impact to the manufacturing sector. Those…

— By Staff ReportOctober 28, 20140 Comments

Missouri Attorney General Files TRO to keep Ebola Medical Waste Out of St. Louis Treatment Facility

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office seeks to enjoin an Illinois-based company with a facility in north St. Louis from accepting Ebola medical waste from Texas. The Attorney General’s action is due to the facility’s prior compliance history, namely its past violations of Missouri medical waste…

Environmental Law Real Estate Law

— By Amy LangeMay 14, 20141 Comment

Sumpin’ New on All Appropriate Inquiries

Since the last blogs on what one needs to do when acquiring an interest in real estate, there have been a change or two which are kind of important. See examples 1, 2 and/or 3. The most significant is that there is a new ASTM 1527 standard; ASTM 1527-13 to…

Environmental Law

— By Amy LangeAugust 6, 20130 Comments

You Just Might Want Me (Or Some Other Environmental Lawyer) When. . .

So we’ve talked a lot about how to avoid environmental liability when buying or leasing real property. The next question is, how do I know if I have an environmental problem, and when do I call in an environmental lawyer? We lawyers all want to…

— By Amy LangeMarch 20, 20130 Comments

So, By Renting I Am Insulated From Environmental Problems, Right?

So you have been following previous posts about environmental liability associated with real estate and because you are a renter, you have ignored it all because you don’t own it. Come on, be honest, you think you don’t have any problems right? Well, you might…

— By Amy LangeAugust 14, 20120 Comments

How to Buy Property and Avoid the Cost of Clean-up (Maybe): Part 2

In my last post, I wrote about what a Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser (BFPP from now on) has to do before purchasing property in order to avoid that troublesome Superfund liability. I pointed out that pre-requisites to the property’s purchase were just step 1 and there were some post-requisite…

— By Amy LangeApril 26, 20120 Comments

How to Buy Property and Avoid the Cost of Cleanup (Maybe)

So you’re afraid to buy property that might have some environmental issues because you hear that you could be on the hook for the cost of cleaning it up. What if I told you that’s not necessarily true, and that maybe, just maybe, if you…