Washington – The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to consider whether W.R. Grace & Co. must pay $54 million to clean up asbestos in the Montana mining town of Libby.
The case pits Grace, which operated a vermiculite mine in Libby for 27 years, against the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the federal Superfund program for the nation’s worst hazardous-waste sites.
Grace argued in court papers that the EPA had no authority to hand the company the entire bill, as well as responsibility for future costs, for eliminating asbestos-contaminated soil in Libby. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and a federal district judge sided with the EPA, which sued Grace in 2001 to recover cleanup costs.
“The situation confronting the EPA in Libby is truly extraordinary,” the appeals court wrote in its opinion in December. “We cannot escape the fact that people are sick and dying as a result of this continuing exposure.”
Grace said other appeals courts have ruled that companies can’t be forced to pay the entire cost of cleaning a polluted site without being allowed to challenge whether the cleanup was necessary to contain or remove contamination.
Solicitor General Paul Clement, the Bush administration’s Supreme Court lawyer, urged justices not to take the case. The EPA was within its bounds to seek to have Grace pay for the cleanup, he said.
Additional Nation/World news briefs:
KUTUM, Sudan
Fierce fighting erupts near border with Chad
Intense fighting has erupted in the northern part of Darfur with hundreds of rebels and Sudanese government troops wounded or captured in clashes this week near the border with Chad, international observers said Tuesday.
The Sudanese air force is bombing villages in rebel-controlled areas north of the regional capital of El Fasher, the international groups said.
The U.N. says at least 18,000 people have fled fighting in North Darfur in the past month alone, streaming into refugee camps in El Fasher.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip
Hamas rejects key demands in peace plan
Qatar’s attempt to end a growing crisis in the Palestinian territories appeared to end in failure Tuesday after Hamas rejected the plan’s key demands that it recognize Israel and renounce violence.
Fatah faulted Hamas for the breakdown in negotiations – the latest setback to international efforts to establish a unity government and restore much-needed aid to the Palestinians.
However, Palestinian Information Minister Youssef Rizka of Hamas said the U.S. was to blame for dismissing a separate Palestinian plan that would establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank but not explicitly recognize Israel.
BEIJING
Activists say China detaining Tibetan kids
An activist group Tuesday said Chinese forces detained a group of Tibetan children after border guards fatally shot at least one refugee trying to flee to Nepal on a Himalayan mountain pass.
Foreign mountain climbers saw soldiers march 10-12 frightened children ages 6-10 through their camp near Mount Everest after the Sept. 30 shooting, said the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet.
SAN DIEGO
5 held after being stuck in Mexico-U.S. tunnel
Five people trying to sneak into the United States from Mexico became trapped in a narrow tunnel and had to be rescued Tuesday after the largest of them, a nearly 200-pound man, got stuck trying to climb out through a storm drain, authorities said.
Firefighters used jackhammers at the city’s border with Tijuana to widen the opening and free the man, who had become stuck at the hips, said James Jacques, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
All appeared to be uninjured, though one woman was taken to a hospital because she appeared to have become sick from the stuffy air, authorities said.
BURLINGTON, Vt.
Parents on Net plead for child to be found
The parents of a missing University of Vermont student made an impassioned plea for help in finding their daughter in a video posted on the Internet on Tuesday, as the search intensified for her.
“I beg of everyone that hears this broadcast, if they know anything at all about where my daughter, Michelle, is today, or where she might have been Friday night, Saturday morning, they tell us instantly,” John-Charles Quinn said in the video posted on the Burlington Police Department website.
