We are pleased to present you with Taft's 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
Cement Plant Must Seek Rezoning to Burn Liquid Waste Derived Fuel
By: Jeff Stemerick

Essroc Cement Corporation operates a cement plant in Clark County, Indiana. For more than one hundred years, Essroc has burned coal to produce cement at the facility. In 2014, Essroc decided it wanted to switch from coal to liquid waste derived fuel (LWDF). LWDF is hazardous waste amalgamated from various sources. Essroc's facility was in an area zoned M-2 which permits a variety of industrial uses including cement production.

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California City Held Responsible for Half of Future PCE Cleanup Costs For Failing to Maintain its Sewer System
By: Kimberly DalSanto 

The Eastern District of California just gave cities across the country another reason to upgrade their crumbling, outdated sewer systems.

In Mission Linen Supply v. City of Visalia, No. 1:15-CV-0672 AWI EPG (E.D. Cal. Feb. 5, 2019), the Eastern District of California addressed the proper apportionment of future response costs for perchloroethylene (PCE) contamination from former dry cleaning operations. The plaintiff, Mission Linen Supply, was a former owner of a dry cleaner in Visalia, California. Mission Linen Supply was actively remediating the PCE contamination, and brought a CERCLA contribution action against the City for contributing to the spread of contamination off-site.

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Ohio's Personal Participation Theory and its Effect on Shareholder Liability
By: Kristine Gordon

In Ohio ex rel. DeWine v. Breen, 362 F.Supp.3d 420 (S.D. Ohio 2019), the Southern District of Ohio expanded the scope of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's (OEPA) enforcement power when it held former corporate shareholders personally liable for the dissolved corporation's environmental violations even though the corporation itself was off the hook.

The court explained that under Ohio statutory law, the state may only impose liability on a dissolved corporation for violating environmental enforcement orders within five years of the corporation's dissolution date. For that reason, the state could not impose liability on the defunct corporation because the corporation was dissolved in 2007 and the state did not initiate administrative enforcement proceedings until nine years later in 2016. At the same time, however, the court determined that former corporate officers, directors and shareholders may be personally liable for their role in the environmental violations under the personal participation theory." Id. at 442.

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