Environmental -- 2020



Troy Corporation v. EPA   (D.C. Circuit)

Scope of CERCLA listings

The NAM filed an amicus brief on behalf of Troy Corporation to argue that the EPA’s listing of sites under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act should accurately reflect the site’s potential environmental risks and not rely on artificial and inaccurate rules of thumb. The EPA added a creek that runs through and adjacent to Troy Corporation’s manufacturing facility in Newark, NJ to CERCLA’s National Priority List. The listing was based in significant part on the EPA’s assessment that the creek had the potential to contaminate a fishing pier located 13 miles away. That assessment was based solely on regulatory assumptions that Troy rebutted in regulatory comments. In response to those comments, EPA responded that it is entitled to rely on the bright line presumptions in the regulation and need not demonstrate any actual risk of contamination. If such a position is upheld, many manufacturing sites could be listed as “priority” CERCLA sites when they have no actual potential to cause such environmental harm. The NAM’s amicus brief argues that this approach to listing sites violates CERCLA and could adversely impact many manufacturers. Unfortunately, on November 13, 2020, the court denied Troy's petition for review.


Related Documents:
NAM brief  (October 25, 2019)