Prof. Klass Quoted in Media on Environmental Law Cases

Professor Alex Klass was quoted in a Star Tribune article on the Minnesota Court of Appeals allowing a cell phone tower on the edge of the Boundary Waters wilderness. Klass and five other law professors have asked the state Supreme Court to review the case saying the court was wrong to allow this. Klass is also acting as the lawyer representing the law professor proposed amicus group. Klass was also quoted in another Star Tribune article on the Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that pesticide that drifts onto an organic farm may constitute nuisance or negligence, but cannot support a claim of trespass to recover for damages to contaminated crops. Klass said, "They have to show the action was unreasonable in some way, and that's harder to prove." Klass was then quoted in a Bloomberg BNA Toxics Law Reporter article on the distinction between remedial costs and removal costs under the Minnesota superfund law with the court, for the first time, interpreting the law to say removal costs are more limited than remedial costs. Klass said, "It certainly potentially impacts the ability of private parties to recover cleanup costs. It is not a good development in terms of encouraging cleanup" of contaminated sites.