Energy

New York court leaves turbine project dangling in the wind

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An appeals court has refused to order a local government to extend a special use permit for a proposed multimillion-dollar 29-turbine wind farm in Western New York. Allegany Wind LLC unsuccessfully sought a one-year extension of its permit for the controversial project in the town of Allegany, in Cattaraugus County just north of the Pennsylvania border. When the original permit was issued in July 2011, the town notified the company that the approval would expire if construction has not commenced within a year. The town extended the deadline because of a lawsuit by project opponents, Concerned Citizens of Cattaraugus. The citizens group lost that challenge in November 2011.

Land

Landowner off the hook for Superfund clean up in New York

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The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals  ruled that the landowner had fulfilled all its responsibilities under the Superfund law — officially called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA. The decision apparently leaves the subcontractor that hauled away the contaminated soil out of luck. Here’s what happened, according to legal documents:

Norampac Industries Inc. discovered that property it owned in Cheektowaga, near Buffalo, was polluted with lead and other contaminants. It negotiated a brownfield cleanup agreement with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation in 2006. Company lawyer John Horn of Buffalo said the property known as the N.L. Industries site had been used for brass foundry and smelting operations and for processing an alloy of tin, copper and antimony from 1892 until 1972.

Land

Connecting environmental justice and biodiversity

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When the U.S. Supreme Court held last year that farmers can be liable for damages if they use patented seeds for more than one planting, the decision highlighted a debate over growers’ rights, intellectual property and agricultural sustainability.

Echo

Convicted sewage dumper loses another court challenge

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By Eric FreedmanGreat Lakes EchoA federal judge in Detroit has rejected a challenge to a former landlord’s conviction for illegally dumping an estimated 107,000 gallons of raw sewage into Southeast Michigan’s Huron River. U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland rebuffed an effort by David Kircher to overturn his 2006 conviction for violating Michigan’s Natural Resources and Protection Act in a way that “substantially endangers” the public. He was sentenced to five years in state prison and fined $1 million. Earlier, the state Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and sentence. The case arose from an October 2004 incident when sewage backed up at the Eastern Highlands apartment complex that Kircher then owned in Ypsilanti Township near Ann Arbor.