We are pleased to present you with Tafts Environmental newsletter, a collection of insights from our team to yours. For more information on our environmental practice, please visit www.taftlaw.com.

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ARTICLES

 
9th Circuit Holds Government Must Share in Cleanup Costs for Defense Contractors Site
By: Jeffrey D. Stemerick

In TDY Holdings, LLC v. United States, 872 F.3d 1004, 1005 (9th Cir. 2017), the 9th Circuit reversed a district court’s decision to allocate no share of CERCLA cleanup costs for a defense contractors manufacturing site to the government, finding the decision to be a sharp deviation from our prior case law.

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Government Clarifies FDA and EPA Jurisdiction Over Mosquito-Related Products
By: Chase Dressman

On Oct. 4, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized guidance to clarify jurisdiction over the regulation of mosquito-related products. Both the FDA and the EPA regulate products intended for use in or on animals. The FDA is charged with protecting the public health by ensuring that animal drugs are safe and effective, while the EPA is charged with protecting human health and the environment by ensuring that registered pesticide products, when used according to their label instructions, result in no unreasonable adverse effects to man or the environment. Given their overlapping jurisdictions and the increasing focus on mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika, the FDA and the EPA issued the guidance to clarify the regulatory oversight of mosquito-related products.

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NEWS

 
Bilott Visit to Italy Receives International Media Coverage

Taft partner Robert A. Bilotts recent visit to the Veneto Region of Italy has received extensive international media coverage. On Oct. 1, Bilott spoke to nearly 1,000 community members from the Veneto Region of Italy and later met with various governmental authorities. Bilott was interviewed by a national Italian news network regarding his work on drinking water contamination (view the interview here).

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Bilott Receives International Recognition for 2017 Right Livelihood Award

Taft partner Robert A. Bilott has received international recognition regarding the 2017 Right Livelihood Award. Bilott was named an honorary laureate for the award, often referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

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MORE ARTICLES

 
Food and Drug Administration Reaffirms 2005 Enforcement Guidance Regarding Permissible Pesticide Residues on Food
By: Chase Dressman


The Food and Drug Administration published a Notice in the Oct. 16, 2017 Federal Register regarding enforcement of pesticide residue levels on FDA-regulated products. The Notice focuses on situations where FDA-regulated products are found in the channels of trade to contain pesticide residue levels in excess of current allowable levels, but such residue is present as the result of an application of the pesticide that was lawful at the time of application

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EPA Issues Guidance to Combat Pesticide Resistance
By: Chase Dressman

EPA recently issued two Pesticide Registration Notices (PRNs) to address the increasing problem of pesticide resistance. The first PRN (2017-1 Guidance for Pesticide Registrants on Pesticide Resistance Management Labeling) offers general guidance on resistance management labeling for conventional agricultural insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides.

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Tyson Poultry Pleads Guilty and Agrees to Pay $2.5 Million for Clean Water Act Violations
By: Chase Dressman

On Sept. 27, 2017, Tyson Poultry, Inc. (
Tyson) pled guilty in federal court to two criminal charges of violating the Clean Water Act. The violations related to discharges from Tyson’s slaughter and processing facility in Monett, Mo. According to court filings, in May 2014, a tank used to store a low-pH liquid food supplement at Tyson’s Aurora, Mo. feed mill sprang a leak, causing the acidic substance to flow into a secondary containment area. Tyson hired a contractor to remove the substance from the secondary containment system and transport it to Tyson’s Monett plant, where it was unloaded into the in-house treatment system. However, Tyson’s in-house treatment system was not designed to treat such waste, and as a result, some of the waste made its way into the city of Monett’s municipal waste water treatment plant, where it killed bacteria used to reduce ammonia from the municipal waste water treatment plant’s discharges. This caused water with elevated ammonia levels to be discharged into a local creek, which resulted in the death of approximately 108,000 fish.

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