New York State Sues Companies for $38M in Remediation Costs
In June 2018 the State of New York sued 3M Co. and five other companies for the costs associated with the remediation of hazardous materials caused by the firefighting foam manufactured by these six companies. This is the first lawsuit of its type filed by a U.S. state against private compan…
View the post titled New York State Sues Companies for $38M in Remediation CostsDe-polluting end of life vehicles, at last?
After years of effort by Ontario’s mainstream auto recyclers, in cooperation with automobile manufacturers, the Ministry of the Environment is getting close to a permit-by-rule system for recycling end of life vehicles. Given the elaborate market that already exists for vehicle recycli…
View the post titled De-polluting end of life vehicles, at last?Good news: updated Ontario noise guideline
After three years of consideration, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment has adopted a more up-to-date guideline for assessing noise impacts. “Environmental Noise Guideline Stationary and Transportation Sources – Approval and Planning, Publication NPC-300” is now in force. See NPC 300 o…
View the post titled Good news: updated Ontario noise guidelineApprovals Reform to tackle Brownfields/ Surplus soil issues
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment has announced another round of consultations on Modernization of Approvals. This time, they say, they will tackle the high stakes problems of surplus soil movements and contaminated sites. See presentation, Brownfields Modernization.
View the post titled Approvals Reform to tackle Brownfields/ Surplus soil issuesUnlimited personal no fault liability for directors and officers?
The Ontario government argued in Superior Court on April 18 that former corporate directors and officers have presumptive, unlimited, personal, no-fault liability to orders to pay all environmental costs associated with the assets of their former corporation, or of the subsidiaries of that c…
View the post titled Unlimited personal no fault liability for directors and officers?Liability insurer need not pay for voluntary delineation and cleanup
According to Ontario’s Court of Appeal, General Electric Canada (GE) can’t make its liability insurer pay for the delineation and cleanup of a former GE property contaminated with trichloroethylene (“TCE”), because it voluntarily complied with a Ministry of the Environment …
View the post titled Liability insurer need not pay for voluntary delineation and cleanupOntario flurry of convictions
In a typical year, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment launches about 150 to 175 prosecutions. About 75% of them are resolved by guilty pleas; about 5% are acquitted at trial; about 10% are convicted of something at trial; about 10% are withdrawn. Thus, we expect to hear about 12 or so c…
View the post titled Ontario flurry of convictionsAir regulation 419/05 amended for site-specific standards
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has amended Ontario Regulation 419/05: Air Pollution, Local Air Quality to make the process of seeking exceptions to generic criteria less punitive and more useful to businesses. The process has been given a new name, “Site-specific Standard”, an…
View the post titled Air regulation 419/05 amended for site-specific standardsApprovals reform: the new application
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment has published its draft requirements for complete applications for the new Environmental Compliance Approvals. These requirements are proposed to be the basis of a future regulation, which will set out generic requirements for all project types. A futu…
View the post titled Approvals reform: the new applicationBrownfields: Better information, fewer errors?
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment has updated its Brownfields information webpage, as part of its massive IT overhaul. Meanwhile, the ministry is considering whether to fix some problems with regulation 153/04 (records of site condition and contaminated sites) before major changes come…
View the post titled Brownfields: Better information, fewer errors?Receive Blog Posts
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