News & Articles

On December 12, 2013, EPA proposed to list the MacMillan Ring Free Oil site, a refinery from 1929 to 1987, in Norphlet, Arkansas on the National Priorities List. The site is proposed for listing due to contamination related to historic operations and the resulting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and metals which are still found in the soil and groundwater at the site.

The American Society for Testing and Materials has releases a new standard – ASTM E1527-13 – for Phase I environmental site assessments. The new standard applies to Phase I’s performed after November 1, 2013 and is the first update since 2005. A Phase I provides protections to a land purchaser including satifying "all appropriate inquiry" standards for Superfund defenses.

On December 3, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a $5.7 million trial judgment against the United States for physically taking the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission’s property under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The case arose after eight years of flooding actions by the Army Corps of Engineers destroyed much of the Commission’s habitat at the Dave Donaldson Black River Wildlife Management Area near Pocahontas.

As 2013 comes to an end, we are still without a new farm bill. Both the U.S. Senate and House passed versions of the new farm bill in 2013. The Senate Agriculture Committee approved its version of the 2013 farm bill (S. 954, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Acts of 2013) on May 14, 2013. The next day, the House Agriculture Committee approved its version of the farm bill (H.R. 1947, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013).

John F. Peiserich & Michael R. Christian, A Summary of Revisions to Idaho’s Oil and Gas Conservation Act and Rules: Responding as Production in Idaho Nears Reality, 49 IDAHO L. REV. 497 (2013).