A portion of this book dealt with big business trying to weasle out of cleanups. I saw this article and it made me remeber that section.
_____________________________________
Supreme Court Rejects W.R. Grace Asbestos Clean-Up Appeal
By Mark Sherman
October 12, 2006
W.R. Grace & Co. lost its bid to the Supreme Court Tuesday to get out from under a $54 million bill to clean up asbestos in the Montana mining town of Libby.
Justices rejected without comment Columbia, Md.-based Grace's appeal of lower court rulings that said the company was responsible for the entire cost of removing asbestos-contaminated soil in Libby.
The case pits Grace, which operated a vermiculite mine in Libby for 27 years, against the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the federal Superfund program for the nation's worst hazardous waste sites.
Grace argued in court papers that EPA had no authority to hand the company the entire bill, as well as responsibility for future costs, for the cleanup. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and a federal district judge sided with EPA, which sued Grace in 2001 to recover cleanup costs.
"The situation confronting the EPA in Libby is truly extraordinary,'' the appeals court wrote in its opinion in December. "We cannot escape the fact that people are sick and dying as a result of this continuing exposure.''
Grace said others appeals courts have ruled that companies can't be forced to pay the entire cost of cleaning a polluted site without being allowed to challenge whether the cleanup was necessary to contain or remove contamination.
Solicitor General Paul Clement, the Bush administration's Supreme Court lawyer, urged justices not to take the case. EPA was within its bounds to seek to have Grace pay for the cleanup, Clement said.
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson estimated last year that it would take another five to six years to finish cleaning contaminated sites in Libby, in Montana's northwest corner.
The case is W.R. Grace & Co., et al, v. U.S., 05-1363.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Find this article at:
www.insurancejournal.com/.../73236.htm
_____________________________________
Supreme Court Rejects W.R. Grace Asbestos Clean-Up Appeal
By Mark Sherman
October 12, 2006
W.R. Grace & Co. lost its bid to the Supreme Court Tuesday to get out from under a $54 million bill to clean up asbestos in the Montana mining town of Libby.
Justices rejected without comment Columbia, Md.-based Grace's appeal of lower court rulings that said the company was responsible for the entire cost of removing asbestos-contaminated soil in Libby.
The case pits Grace, which operated a vermiculite mine in Libby for 27 years, against the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the federal Superfund program for the nation's worst hazardous waste sites.
Grace argued in court papers that EPA had no authority to hand the company the entire bill, as well as responsibility for future costs, for the cleanup. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and a federal district judge sided with EPA, which sued Grace in 2001 to recover cleanup costs.
"The situation confronting the EPA in Libby is truly extraordinary,'' the appeals court wrote in its opinion in December. "We cannot escape the fact that people are sick and dying as a result of this continuing exposure.''
Grace said others appeals courts have ruled that companies can't be forced to pay the entire cost of cleaning a polluted site without being allowed to challenge whether the cleanup was necessary to contain or remove contamination.
Solicitor General Paul Clement, the Bush administration's Supreme Court lawyer, urged justices not to take the case. EPA was within its bounds to seek to have Grace pay for the cleanup, Clement said.
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson estimated last year that it would take another five to six years to finish cleaning contaminated sites in Libby, in Montana's northwest corner.
The case is W.R. Grace & Co., et al, v. U.S., 05-1363.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Find this article at:
www.insurancejournal.com/.../73236.htm
Mr. P's place. I warned you!!!
The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.
The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets"
I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper
The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.
The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets"
I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper
