In a decision issued on April 12, 2018, a Fourth Circuit panel held (2-1) that (1) even though a pipeline leak has been repaired and remediation is ongoing under the supervision of the state environmental agency, environmental groups have standing to sue the pipeline owner, and (2) plaintiffs’ allegation that groundwater continues to carry discharged pollutants to jurisdictional waters through a “direct hydrological connection” supports liability under the Clean Water Act.
Continue Reading Fourth Circuit Extends CWA Liability to Cover a Wholly Past Pipeline Spill
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Standing on Shaky Ground: Environmental Challenges to Pipeline Projects Falter in Establishing Basis for Suit
By Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP on
Environmental groups often seek to delay or stop pipeline projects by filing legal challenges under various state and federal environmental and/or energy laws. Recent court decisions have illustrated the difficult nature of such challenges, and in particular the difficulty environmental groups have in making a threshold showing of the legal basis for their challenge. An offshoot of the well-established principle that a litigant cannot raise someone else’s rights in court, the legal doctrine of ‘standing’ requires a litigant to demonstrate its interest in an actual case or controversy as a preliminary requirement for a case to be heard and decided in a court of law. In addition, a litigant citing a particular statute as the basis for a lawsuit must establish that it has an interest at stake that is within the ‘zone of interests’ protected by that statute.
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Continue Reading Standing on Shaky Ground: Environmental Challenges to Pipeline Projects Falter in Establishing Basis for Suit