Brownfields Redevelopment
SPR 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…
New 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…
New 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…
DEC 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…
Who’s Who Legal Recognizes Jeff Gracer as an Environmental Thought Leader
By: Heewon Kim Sive, Paget & Riesel principal Jeffrey B. Gracer was named as a Who’s Who Legal Thought Leader, a new Who’s Who category established this year. Only those who obtained the highest number of nominations from peers, corporate counsel and other market sources, were chosen as Thought Leaders. They comprise just the top…
NYC 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…
Executive Order Begins the Formidable Process of Dismantling Federal Efforts to Address Climate Change
On March 28, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order, titled “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” that is designed to roll back several of President Barack Obama’s efforts to address climate change. While some of the Executive Order’s provisions are self-executing, many will require lengthy administrative procedures to become effective and certainly will face…
Trump Executive Order Directs EPA and the Corps to Reconsider the 2015 “Clean Water Rule”
On February 28, 2017, the Trump administration issued an Executive Order (the “Order”) directing the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“USACE”) to begin the process of “revising or revoking” the Obama administration’s 2015 “Clean Water Rule” (the “Rule”) which sought to define the extent of federal jurisdiction over “waters…
Appellate Court Denies Motion to Enjoin Brooklyn Heights Library Redevelopment
By: Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz On March 7, 2017, the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Second Department, denied a motion to enjoin the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Public Library’s (“BPL”) Brooklyn Heights branch, which will provide a modernized library within a new 36-story, mixed-used building featuring 134 market-rate apartments, two retail spaces, and a science,…
DEC Adopts Regulation Establishing Sea-Level Rise Projections for New York
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) recently announced the final adoption of a regulation establishing science-based sea-level rise projections for New York’s tidal coast. The regulation, which implements the Community Risk and Resiliency Act (“CRRA”) of 2014, was first proposed in late 2015 and was revised in late 2016. The final regulation…
