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

Sixth Circuit Rules Clean Water Act Only Regulates Direct Discharges 
By: Kristine Gordon

In two cases decided the same day, Kentucky Waterways Alliance v. Kentucky Utility Co., 905 F.3d 925 (6th Cir. 2018), and Tennessee Clean Water Network v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 905 F.3d 436 (6th Cir. 2018), the Sixth Circuit held that pollutants discharged into groundwater that is hydrologically connected to navigable waters are not regulated by the Clean Water Act which prohibits discharges of pollutants from a point source into navigable waters without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

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Ten Year Statute of Limitations Applies to Environmental Legal Action Statute
By: Jeffrey Stemerick

In Elkhart Foundry & Machine Co., Inc. v. City of Elkhart, __ N.E.3d ___, No. 20A03-1709-CT-2136, 2018 WL 4762756 (Ind. Ct. App. Oct. 3, 2018), the Indiana Court of Appeals held that Indiana’s Environmental Legal Action statute (ELA), Ind. Code § 13-30-9-2, is subject to a ten-year statute of limitations. The decision ends, at least for now, a debate that has raged since the General Assembly first enacted the ELA in 1997 to allow people who incur environmental remediation costs to recover those costs from those who caused or contributed to the contamination.

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Trinity, the Corporate Form and How to Avoid Parent-Subsidiary CERCLA Liability
By: John Huldin

Liability for environmental contamination, under both state and federal law, can complicate any transaction and can threaten the existence of even a profitable enterprise. The state and federal statutes that impose this liability are Draconian. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) imposes strict liability on owners and operators regardless of whether they caused or contributed to the environmental contamination. 42 U.S.C. § 9601. States laws also impose liability on owners and operators of environmentally compromised sites. Those liabilities are major headaches for managers and shareholders, and often lead to astronomical remediation costs for owners and operators. Worse yet, parent corporations, in some cases, can be held liable for their subsidiaries’ environmental liabilities.

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