Under this Court's normal practice, the case should be remanded for resolution of the remaining issues that the court of appeals did not reach. The court imposed civil penalties expressly to "provide adequate deterrence" of future violations. See CWA 505(a), 33 U.S.C. See, e.g., W.T. 1998); Atlantic States Legal Found., Inc. v. Stroh Die Casting, Inc., 116 F.3d 814, 820 (7th Cir. 185-195). Laidlaw Environmental Services (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167 (2000), exposes fundamental incoherencies within environ-mental standing doctrine, even while it ostensibly makes standing easier to prove for plaintiffs in environmental citizen suits. WebRincon Consultants, Inc. was founded in 1994 and has grown to be a leading environmental consulting firm throughout California. Its resolution will have a direct and substantial effect on enforcement of the Act. 588, 600-01, 610 (D.S.C.1997). In addition, the court may award costs of litiga- See CWA 309(a), 402(b)(7), 33 U.S.C. No. 1365, must be dismissed as moot unless the district court orders injunctive relief. The District Court Proceedings Laidlaw operated a hazardous waste incineration facility in Roebuck, South Carolina. See Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, INC., ET AL. 98-822. Friends of the Earth brought an enforcement action against Laidlaw pursuant to the citizen-suit provision of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act). 956 F. Supp. at 760-761. 181-182). PIERCE, JR.* This article was written before the Supreme Court decided Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw The cash portion will be reduced by breakup fees or new severance agreements with Safety-Kleen executives, Laidlaw has said. The court added that FOE's failure to obtain relief on the merits precluded recovery of attorneys' fees or costs because such an award is available only to a "prevailing or substantially prevailing party" under 1365(d). The Court has since indicated in Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 523 U.S. 83 (1998), that a private citizen would lack constitutional standing to bring a suit solely to assess civil penalties for past infractions. The Court explained that "the irreducible constitutional minimum of standing" consists of the "triad of injury in fact, causation, and redressability," which "constitutes the core of Article III's case-or-controversy requirement." v. LAIDLAW ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (TOC), INC. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT, No. Id. As this Court indicated in Romero-Barcelo, the court was entitled to employ civil penalties, rather than an injunction, to deter future violations and ensure continued compliance. See CWA 505(b)(1)(B), 33 U.S.C. Work is often performed at active facilities in densely populated, urban areas. This Court has repeatedly and emphatically rejected the notion that "voluntary cessation" of the challenged conduct automatically deprives a court of the power to order relief. See also Carr v. Alta Verde Indus., Inc., 931 F.2d 1055, 1065 n.9 (5th Cir. In particular, the permit, at that time, limited Laidlaw to a daily average maximum discharge of 1.3 parts per billion (ppb) of mercury. Office of the Solicitor General WebIT Services and IT Consulting. at 611 (J.A. 1365(a)) in citizen suits specifically to facilitate that objective. Glen Roberts was the MedTrans CEO and Donald Jones, COO, at the time of the Laidlaw acquisition. 11046(a)(1), that a citizen plaintiff would lack constitutional standing to bring a citizen suit solely to assess civil penalties (payable to the government) for wholly past violations. 1365(d). 1. In the 1970s he would increasingly focus on waste management and other areas, shifting away from the boom-or-bust trucking industry, which had a tendency to rise and fall with the economy. 1311(a), 1342. See 33 U.S.C. App. WebLaidlaw Environmental Services | 17 followers on LinkedIn. 2. In 2019, ECOS is celebrating its 15th year anniversary due to our highly regarded customer service. United States District Court, D. Massachusetts. Data inaccuracies may exist. City of Mesquite, 455 U.S. at 289 n.10. According to Laidlaw, the entire Roebuck facility has since been permanently closed, dismantled, and put up for sale, and all discharges from the facility have permanently ceased. If the Court concludes that petitioners' suit is not moot, the issue of petitioners' standing would be resolved on remand. Fined $22,500 for hazardous waste burning violations discovered duringa 1990 inspection. STATEMENT Section 505 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. Fined $80,000 for emitting odors and $14,000 for silt discharges in March1993 in Storrington Township northeast of Kingston. 531, 536 (1984). The district court's statements respecting the appropriateness of equitable relief do not provide what a determination of mootness would require: a definitive finding that it is absolutely clear there is no reasonable prospect that Laidlaw would repeat its violations. Ibid. Civil penalties, as an alternative to an injunction, would continue to be available unless it is "absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably be expected to recur." 41. LAIDLAW WASTE SYSTEMS INC has the Handler ID: #TXD000454710. Laidlaw sold the Canadian operations to USA Waste Services, Inc. Laidlaw American branch's where re-branded to many different names, depending on the location of were they were. Since the environmental services arm went bankrupt, needless to say those of us that worked there were shocked and dismayed. Compare Laidlaw II, 956 F. Supp. . Pet. 1319, 1342(b)(7). On April 10, 1992, plaintiff-petitioners Friends of the Earth and Citizens Local Environmental Action Network, Inc. (referred to collectively here, along with later joined plaintiff-petitioner Sierra Club, as "FOE"), notified Laidlaw of their intention to file a citizen suit against it under the Act, 33 U. S. C. 1365(a), after the expiration of the requisite 60-day notice period. See also Maher v. Gagne, 448 U.S. 122, 129 (1980) ("for purposes of the award of counsel fees [under 42 U.S.C. Id. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. E.g., County of Los Angeles, 440 U.S. at 631. See Atlantic States Legal Found., Inc. v. Pan Am. 414, 92 Cong., 2d Sess. See Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204 (1962).8 D. The Court of Appeals' Judgment Should Be Vacated And The Case Remanded For Further Proceedings, Including Appropriate Proceedings Respecting Petitioners' Entitlement To Litigation Costs For the foregoing reasons, we submit that the court of appeals erred in concluding that the district court's determination not to award injunctive relief rendered this case moot. Whether a citizen suit under Section 505 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. The Court applies the doctrine of mootness to assess whether circumstances have changed during the course of the litigation so as to eliminate the case or controversy that the plaintiff had previously shown to exist. Because the Fourth Circuit was persuaded that the case had become moot, it simply assumed that FOE had initial standing. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. filed as a Domestic Business Corporation in the State of New York on Wednesday, May 7, 1980 and is approximately forty-three years old, as recorded in documents filed with New York Department of State. WebAfter Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. bought a wastewater treatment plant, it was granted a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. 1365. P. 180. WebFriends of Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167 (2000) Argued: October 12, 1999 Decided: January 12, 2000 Annotation Primary Holding A party trying to show that the mootness doctrine applies because it will voluntarily cease an activity must show that the activity would not recur. If the United States has not filed its own action, it may intervene in the citizen action. Court of Appeals of South Carolina. 4, In the meanwhile, Degroote busied himself building a new waste empire.In 1991, DeGroote took over Republic Waste from Browning Ferris Industriesfounder Tom Fatjo.5In 1995 DeGroote gave up control of Republic to Waste Management Inc. founderWayne Huizenga. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. 7a-9a. The citizen plaintiffs in Steel Co. brought a citizen suit against an industrial facility that had violated EPCRA's requirements but came into compliance before the citizens filed their complaint. United States Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall Partnership, 513 U.S. 18, 24-25 (1994) ("The judgment is not unreviewable, but simply unreviewed by [the losing party's] own choice."). If Laidlaw had failed to meet its "heavy" burden of showing that "there is no reasonable expectation that the wrong will be repeated," Gwaltney, 484 U.S. at 66, then the citizen suit was not moot, and the district court could impose relief to ensure future compliance. 98-822 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, INC., ET AL., PETITIONERS v. LAIDLAW ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (TOC), INC. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT BRIEF FOR THE UNITED STATES AS AMICUS CURIAE SUPPORTING PETITIONERS INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES The United States, in cooperation with the individual States, has primary responsibility for implementing and enforcing the Clean Water Act (CWA), 33 U.S.C. The Court has indicated that those mootness principles apply to Clean Water Act citizen suits. at 5a. The latter converted in 1996, and Virginia Overland's parent company based in Richmond closed in 2004. Paid a fine of $80,000 in November, 1993 and agreed to $3.5 million inimprovements to abate odors emanating from "bio-sludge.". Laidlaw Environmental Services is a company that operates in the 4a. See CWA 505(c)(2), 33 U.S.C. ARGUMENT The Court of Appeals Erred In Holding That A Citizen Suit Must Be Dismissed As Moot Unless The Citizen Plaintiff Obtains Injunctive Relief The court of appeals' ruling that petitioners' citizen suit is moot rests on a misunderstanding of the Clean Water Act's citizen-enforcement provisions and this Court's mootness jurisprudence. Many See Gwaltney, 484 U.S. at 66-67 (quoting Concentrated Phosphate Export Ass'n, W.T. Weve been identifying carbon-rich wastes to use in our Chem-Fuel program since 1975. Brought on behalf of the Ohio Public Interest Research Group and the Ohio Environmental Council, our lawsuit focused on Laidlaws years of repeated, illegal discharges of heavy metals into the [] (202) 514-2203. Formore on strategy and organizing see our Strategy Guide. For other uses, see, "Laidlaw International Announces Agreement to Be Acquired by FirstGroup", Chicago Business News, Analysis & Articles | British bus firm to acquire Laidlaw | Crain's, "Allied Agrees to Purchase Laidlaw's Waste Operation", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laidlaw&oldid=1150694941, Transportation companies of the United States, Transportation companies based in Illinois, Waste management companies of the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Solid Waste, Recycling, School bus, transit, and charter services. 1 n.1. CWA 101(a), 33 U.S.C. As this Court indicated in Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. 305 (1982), the Clean Water Act provides other remedies, including civil penalties, to compel compliance. The Court has previously indicated, in connection with other federal statutes that authorize "prevailing parties" to recover attorneys' fees, that a plaintiff whose suit induces the defendant to comply with the law voluntarily is a "prevailing party." Pt. Stern, supra, at 716; see id. But if the court of appeals nevertheless believed that Laidlaw's "voluntary" compliance, by itself, may have eliminated any reasonable prospect of future violations, then the court of appeals should have remanded the case to the district court for an express finding on that matter. The court declined to order injunctive relief because Laidlaw, after the lawsuit began, had achieved substantial compliance with the terms of its permit. 1365(a)(1)), allows the citizen to commence suit in response to "a state of either continuous or intermittent violation-that is, a reasonable likelihood that a past polluter will continue to pollute in the future." Congress's authorization of civil penalties in citizen suits, however, is properly viewed as limited to the "forward-looking" objective of deterring the defendant from further non-compliance. 1365(d)). An NPDES permit also typically imposes monitoring and reporting obligations, which require the facility to measure its discharges at prescribed times and document those measurements through publicly available discharge monitoring reports (DMRs). The court also found that Laidlaw had committed 420 monitoring violations, including 13 post-complaint violations, and that Laidlaw had committed 503 reporting violations, including ten post-complaint violations. Rather, "[t]he test for mootness in cases such as this is a stringent one." Soc'y, supra). Indeed, under those principles, Laidlaw was required to "demonstrate that it is 'absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably be expected to recur.'" As a part of that program, Section 301(a) of the Act prohibits all discharges of pollutants into navigable waters except those made in compliance with the Act. 2d 584 (S.D. Here, unlike the situation in Steel Co., petitioners had more than merely a "generalized interest in deterrence." 1319(d). In 1991, after losing its major school bus contract in Norfolk, Virginia to a governmental conversion to district-self-operation, Laidlaw sold the rest of its urban-suburban bus line, school bus contracting business serving independent schools and day camps, and related assets in the Norfolk area to Virginia Overland Transportation. on Investigations and Oversight of the House Comm. Required to pay into a trust fund, to total $133 million cash in the year2004, to cover any clean-up costs. 1365(b)(1)(B). Self-operation conversions for all three were urged by Virginia Department of Education officials as "cost-saving." Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Marianas awarded a contract with a maximum amount of $25 million to Guam small business Landscape Management Systems, Inc. for environmental services at 181-182). In Laidlaw the Court held in a Clean Water Act suit that the plaintiff environ-mental organization could seek civil penalties payable to the United States Treasury because such relief redressed its continuing interest in Instead, the defendant must show that "subsequent events made it absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably be expected to recur." Ibid. On-Call Environmental Services for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Company size. This Court has held that to satisfy Article Ill's standing requirements, a plaintiff must show "injury in fact," causation, and redressability. Arizonans for Official English, 520 U.S. at 68 n.22 (quoting United States Parole Comm'n v. Geraghty, 445 U.S. 388, 397 (1980), and Henry P. Monaghan, Constitutional Adjudication: The Who and When, 82 Yale L. J. WebCode Environmental Services, Inc. has been providing turn-key remedial and environmental construction services to a repeat customer base of Fortune 500 corporations, national engineering firms, and major utility companies for almost 30 years. OCTOBER TERM, 1999 33 U.S.C. App. EPA's policy expressly stated that a core objective of civil penalties is to deprive the defendant of the economic benefit of the violation in order to provide effective deterrence. United States v. Oregon State Med. Settled for a $100,000 fine for more than four years of mercury dischargeviolations. Laidlaw undertook those steps to interpose a bar to the citizen suit under Section 505(b)'s "diligent prosecution" provision, 33 U.S.C. Br. WebFriends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc., 528 U.S. 167 (2000), was a United States Supreme Court case that addressed the law regarding standing to sue and 1993). Soc'y, 343 U.S. 326, 333 (1952). Fined $214,000 for four hazardous waste violations: improper disposal ofinfectious waste, inadequate treatment of sewer sludge, insufficient testingof debris and soil, and excessive contamination of waste at its landfill.As one top agency official put it, "Laidlaw must be more diligent in itsoperations.". 122.41(j) and (l). Beginning in 1972, under the leadership of Michael DeGroote, Laidlaw, Inc. began growing through acquisitions of other companies when it acquired a Canadian intercity and charter bus company. at 7a.3 The court of appeals noted that the district court had denied injunctive relief and, instead, assessed civil penalties, which are payable to the United States Treasury. 1319(d). We are committed to building our people through career development, constructing quality projects, Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Marianas awarded a contract with a maximum amount of $25 million to Guam small business Landscape Management Systems, Inc. for environmental services at WebIn 1995, NELC filed suit against garbage giant Laidlaw Environmental Services for violating the Clean Water Act hundreds of times at its Hilliard, OH, facility. WebLaidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. May 1985 - May 19916 years 1 month Charleston, SC Education University of North Carolina at Greensboro Master of Science (M.S. Read More Syllabus Weve been identifying carbon-rich wastes to use in our Chem-Fuel program since 1975. Official websites use .gov The Court's decision in Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U.S. 103 (1992), which states that, "to qualify as a prevailing party, a civil rights plaintiff must obtain at least some relief on the merits of his claim," id. Meanwhile you can send your letters to POST OFFICE BOX 11393, COLUMBIA, SC, 29211. Grant Co., 345 U.S. at 636). 183). Id. If an NPDES permit holder fails to comply with the specified permit conditions, the federal and state governments may take enforcement action.
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