In a significant environmental law decision, the New York Court of Appeals has upheld regulations1 of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that call for the restoration of inactive hazardous waste disposal sites to “pre-disposal conditions, to the extent feasible.” The Court found that the regulations do not exceed the enabling authority of Section 27-1313(5)(d) of the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL), which provides, in pertinent part, that the goal of a remedial program is “a complete cleanup of the site through the elimination of the significant threat to the environment posed by the disposal of hazardous wastes at the site.”
The Court’s 5-2 ruling, in Matter of N.Y.S. Superfund Coalition Inc., v. N.Y.S. Dept. of Env. Conserv.,2 may very well encourage the DEC to insist on more—and more complete—cleanups of inactive hazardous waste disposal sites throughout the state. Importantly, however, the Court made clear that these environmental cleanups are restrained by economics and statutory procedural requirements.
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