Natural Resource Damages & Environmental Justice
Environmental Agencies, Superfund Cleanups, and Managing Enforcement Actions
What are PFAS and Why Should We Care?
Volatile Times in Vapor Intrusion Regulation: A Legal and Technical Update
Effective February 13, 2024, prospective purchasers and ground tenants of commercial and industrial property seeking liability protections under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act...more
Working as part of a transactional team here at Burns & Levinson, the attorneys in the Environmental Group assist with due diligence activities and provide guidance on contractual language to document accurate representations...more
We all take real property purchase agreements seriously. We read only the title and we know that a transaction is likely to occur, perhaps a significant one. We can also reasonably expect that there will be a property, a...more
Imagine it’s August 2024 and you just got the dreaded news from a colleague that a government agency suspects that there are hazardous substances on a new property your company just bought. Even worse, your colleague just...more
What You Need to Know- CERCLA requires prospective purchasers to conduct an “all appropriate inquiry” into the environmental conditions of a property to qualify for potential defenses to CERCLA liability. Typically, an...more
After the real estate boom in the Southeast over the past few years, there are fewer and fewer examples of clean and pristine land available for commercial or industrial use. That means more properties at risk for...more
Join Ulmer for a Live Webinar on the New Phase I ESA Standard and Solving Environmental Problems During Real Estate Transactions - The American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) released an update last November to the...more
An important lesson on contracting with environmental consultants recently came out of a federal district court in California in Golden Gate Way, LLC v. Enercon Services, Inc., 20-cv-03077-EMC (N.D. Cal. Nov. 18, 2021)....more
In September 2020, during a special legislative session, Connecticut took the plunge and passed Public Act 20-9, a statute that will sunset the Connecticut Transfer Act, and replace it with a release-based reporting and...more
For going on five months, the United States has been dealing with the difficult impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted daily lives and sometimes devastated businesses. In looking for sources of economic...more
Connecticut’s 2019 legislative session produced some long-overdue improvements to the state’s Transfer Act. The resulting Senate Bill 1030 awaits Governor Ned Lamont’s expected signature and would take effect October 1, 2019....more
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (“Court”) addressed in a May 30th opinion a dispute between a buyer and seller of real property related to a contract provision addressing responsibility...more
Despite last minute veto threats from the White House, the bipartisan Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 was signed into law earlier this year. Buried deep in this massive omnibus spending bill is a major win for...more
Purchasers of commercial real estate must meet a new standard to qualify for liability protection under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and analogous state laws. Since...more
The New Jersey Tax Court recently ruled in Methode Electronics, Inc. v. Twp. Of Willingboro, Docket Nos. 019012-2010 and 014098-2011 (Tax January 22, 2015) that the assessment on contaminated property located in Willingboro,...more
A municipal ordinance imposing registration and maintenance obligations upon owners and secured lenders of buildings that are vacant or undergoing foreclosure was preempted by the Massachusetts remediation and clean-up...more
This year is sure to bring a number of significant changes in the areas of waste management and cleanup, vapor intrusion, due diligence and issues related to real estate purchases. ...more
It is generally the rule that a lessee who does not operate the property it rents will not be liable under CERCLA except in the unusual circumstance where the lessee qualifies as an “owner” of the property. Typically, this...more