Many states have counterpart statutes to the federal CERCLA, or Superfund, statute.  Though these statutes generally have the same purpose: to ensure the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and to allow for recovery of natural resource damages caused by those substances, and though most state statutes are “modeled” after CERCLA, many state statutes have specific statutory language or provisions that differ.  This is true of the State of […]

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The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Washington v. United States, a case involving the off-reservation fishing rights of 21 Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest. At issue are culverts built by the state of Washington under roadways it constructed across salmon-bearing streams. The tribes allege the culverts allow the passage of water, but not the passage of salmon, and thus are an unlawful interference with tribal […]

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