The Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, Law360 and Am Law Litigation Daily were among the national news outlets covering the June 26 federal court victory for McGuireWoods client Asarco LLC in a significant environmental case. The court ordered Atlantic Richfield Co. to pay Asarco $28 million toward the cleanup of a Montana Superfund site. The stories recognize McGuireWoods partner Gregory Evans, who led the firm’s team representing Asarco.
Copper mining giant Asarco sued Atlantic Richfield, seeking repayment for some of the $114 million Asarco paid the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Montana to clean arsenic from groundwater near its former East Helena Smelter complex. Atlantic Richfield’s predecessor, The Anaconda Co., operated a slag reprocessing facility on the Asarco property for 45 years.
Greg, who is based in the firm’s downtown Los Angeles office, told AP that the ruling confirms the federal Superfund law works, by allowing companies that accept responsibility for environmental cleanup to recover some of their costs from companies “that didn’t display such good citizenship.”
The AP story was published on the websites of The New York Times, The Washington Post and media outlets throughout the country, including Montana’s Independent Record in Helena, Billings Gazette, Montana Standard in Butte, and Missoulian in Missoula.