Posts by sprlaw
New York Supreme Court Denies Motion to Preliminarily Enjoin a Brownfield Remediation and Hotel Development in the Village of Tuckahoe
In one of the few cases examining the intersection between the State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”) and the State Brownfield Cleanup Program (“BCP”), the New York State Supreme Court (Westchester County), on May 26, 2017, denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin a BCP cleanup and hotel development on a former quarry site in the…
Read MoreSPR Defeats Appeal of Superfund Liability Claims Based on Veil-Piercing, Lease/Sublease of Contaminated Property
By: Ed Roggenkamp SPR attorneys successfully defended the appeal of their summary judgment victories for the defendants in Next Millennium Realty, LLC v. Adchem Corp. (16-1260-cv) in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The May 11, 2017 order dismissing the appeal upheld three successive summary judgment decisions by the District Court. These decisions…
Read MoreNew York City Council Passes Bills to Identify and Address Environmental Justice Areas
By: Heewon Kim Recently, the New York City Council passed two bills to help address environmental justice (“EJ”) issues in the city. Low-income populations and communities of color, including those in New York, often face disproportionate environmental burdens of human activity, such as air pollution and its accompanying health effects. New York City agencies have…
Read MoreNew York Budget Legislation Establishes New Regulations for Solid Waste Sites
By: Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz The budget legislation signed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last month contains several high profile environmental provisions, including more than $1.5 billion in grants for drinking water infrastructure improvements; the creation of a new Drinking Water Council to develop a plan for addressing “emerging” contaminants such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (“PFOS”) and…
Read MoreDEC Proposes Amended Guidance on Brownfield Cleanup Program
By: Heewon Kim DEC recently released a draft revision of its Brownfield Cleanup Program (“BCP”) guidance document, DER-32/Brownfield Cleanup Program Applications and Agreements. This document provides guidance on the BCP application process, as well as the content of and process for executing, amending and terminating a Brownfield Cleanup Agreement (“BCA”). The revisions are intended to…
Read MoreNYC Expands Curbside E-Waste Collection Program for Small Buildings
By: Heewon Kim Earlier this month, New York City announced it will be expanding a pilot curbside e-waste pick-up program into a permanent program in four boroughs. The pilot program started in Staten Island in October 2016, and in six months has already collected over 400,000 pounds of potentially hazardous e-waste that would otherwise have…
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