Groundwater Contamination Litigation: Proving and Defending Against Liability

This CLE course will provide environmental counsel with a review of the regulatory structures for groundwater contamination, analyze lessons from recent significant cases, discuss trends related to damage recovery, and outline best practices for proving and defending against liability.

Groundwater contamination litigation is on the rise. There has been a string of recent cases, and courts have ordered defendants to pay millions of dollars in damages due to groundwater contamination claims. For example, one company agreed to pay $204 million to settle a suit over decades-long groundwater contamination in Delaware in April 2021. In October 2021, two other companies settled a 30-year-old claim in California for $77.6 million in a lawsuit for groundwater contamination related to pesticides released into the water.

Litigation of such claims is quite arduous. Proving or defending against groundwater contamination liability involves significant documentation, scientific reports, and expert testimony. With increasing regulatory and litigation activity related to groundwater pollution, counsel must have the tools necessary to strategize in proving or defending against liability.

Listen as our panel of experts examines the regulatory structures for groundwater contamination, discusses lessons learned from recent cases of significance and the trends for damage recovery, and offers best practices for identifying the sources and proving liability, as well as defending against such claims.