High Court Won’t Hear Canadian Company’s Superfund Challenge

Canadian mining company Teck Metals Ltd. failed to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether it may be held liable under the Superfund law as an arranger for disposal of waste that flowed downriver from Trail, British Columbia to the U.S.

The Ninth Circuit ruled that Superfund wasn’t being applied extraterritorially against Teck because the release—the leaching of hazardous substances from slag that settled in the Upper Columbia River—took place in the U.S.

The appeals court also rejected Teck’s argument that arranger liability requires the involvement of a third party to dispose of or treat the waste.

The Ninth ...