The U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in a Superfund cost recovery case is likely to influence a range of environmental settlements beyond typical cleanup consent decrees, attorneys said.
The U.S. struck a deal with Guam under the Clean Water Act in 2004 requiring the territory to stop waste in the formerly Navy-owned Ordot Dump from leaching into adjacent rivers.
Guam ended up with a $160 million bill for the dump’s cleanup but waited too long to try to recover those costs from the federal government, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said. That ruling is the crux ...