In the Media
Supreme Court ruling isn’t ‘outright victory’ for polluters
Read Time: 1 minEnvironmental attorney Michael Blumenthal (Cleveland) was quoted in a Bloomberg Law article on the Supreme Court’s April 20 opinion on a dispute between landowners and Atlantic Richfield Co. at a Montana Superfund site.
Today’s ruling offers certainty for companies subject to Superfund cleanups, said Michael Blumenthal, an attorney for the law firm McGlinchey Stafford PLLC.
“The opinion preserves the sanctity and integrity of the Superfund process by holding that the group of landowners living within a Superfund site must seek EPA approval before pursuing restoration damages that exceed the government’s cleanup plan under CERCLA,” he said.
Blumenthal highlighted Chief Justice John Roberts’ finding for the majority opinion that the decision promotes “careful development of a single EPA-led cleanup effort rather than tens of thousands of competing individual ones.”