Cases

Public Liability for Mining Waste Clean-Up

In Brief:

According to Superfund legislation passed in 1980, the EPA should have developed regulations that required mining companies and other high-risk polluting industires to provide financial proof that in case of toxic spills and other environmental contamination, these companies would be able to clean up the resultant contamination. The EPA has yet to issue these regulations, and some mining companies have declared bankruptcy instead of paying to clean up their sites, leaving the taxpayers with the bill. Without the financial incentive to prevent pollution, these companies have little incentive to improve their waste management.

The suit seeks to compel the EPA to produce these long overdue regulations for mining companies, therefore limiting the public's liability for the damage caused to the environment by poor practices by these companies.

Updated: March 12, 2008

Case #1675