Print

William D. Hathaway. “The [Medal of Honor] is the highest and most prestigious U.S. military medal.” The criteria for awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor are strict and similar to the standard that must be met by a prosecutor’s evidence in a criminal proceeding. Military honors have a long history of being conferred to individuals who distinguish themselves from the ranks. In America, the first honor of this type was established by General George Washington, who proclaimed in his general order that “[s]hould any who are not entitled to these honors have the insolence to assume the badges of them, they shall be severely punished. On the other hand it is expected those gallant men who are thus designated will on all occasions be treated with particular confidence and consideration.” Full Article

Thomas L. Greaney. Of the many elements animating structural change under health reform, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have drawn the greatest attention. Supported by scholarship from health policy experts and positioned as the Affordable Care Act’s centerpiece for systemic reform, the concept came to represent a potential cure-all for the disorders plaguing American health care. While the program, entitled the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), focuses on Medicare payment policy, its objectives extend much farther. The ACO strategy entails regulatory interventions that at once aim to reshape the health care delivery system, improve outcomes, promote adoption of evidence-based medicine and supportive technology, and create a platform for controlling costs under payment system reform. Ambitious aims to be sure. Implementation, however, has proved a wrenching process. Because the law entails seismic…

Timothy N. Forsman. The taming of the American West, and the utilization of its great rivers, led to an era of unparalleled prosperity and growth for the Nation. However, the era of the endless frontier has long since passed, and today, conflicts over vital water rights in the West continue to intensify. Because river systems cannot furnish an unlimited supply, demand will eventually outpace supply. The first casualties of a growing water shortage are already emerging, and the Salton Sea (“the Sea”) is among the first to bear the brunt of this shortage. Without further intervention, the Sea will become one of the largest ecological disasters in modern American history. Beginning in 2017 the Sea will lose up to 23% of its incoming water supply, resulting in a dramatic reduction in…

Robert D. Anderson, Norm James, Dawn Meidinger & Greg Adams. Standard practice for conducting due diligence as part of real estate trans-actions has long included an assessment of the potential for a site to have “recognized environmental conditions,” i.e., hazardous substances or petro-leum products released to the environment. In addition to this evaluation, sound due diligence practices should include an evaluation of the potential for federal regulatory requirements to significantly affect value. This paper will look at four general areas: the Clean Water Act1 (“CWA”), the Endan-gered Species Act2 (“ESA”), the National Environmental Policy Act3 (“NEPA”) and the National Historic Preservation Act4 (“NHPA”). Full Article

Sherri Zendri. The alphabet soup of federal and state statutes and rules regulating the purchase and sale of property can quickly become overwhelming. Nevertheless, parties to commercial and residential real estate transactions ignore such laws at their own peril: failure to comply with these regulations, whether intentional or not, can impose serious costs on all parties involved. This Article focuses on some practical approaches to due diligence inquiries and allocations of potential liabilities, and includes only brief comments on some of the legal liabilities regarding environmental disclosure requirements in real property transactions. The main take-away from this article is that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (“ADEQ”) is the key environmental regulatory agency in Arizona with a mission to protect the environment. As such, the Agency is a great resource…

Christopher D. Thomas. Few statutes bedevil experienced litigators as often as the federal Superfund act, the Comprehensive Environment Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”). Although CERCLA practice is now into its third decade, the statute’s chronic drafting flaws and the absence of definitive judicial resolution of numerous fundamental issues continue to create uncertainty. This uncertainty offers the opportunity for both creative lawyering and spectacular failure. Many Superfund cases end badly because the lawyers spend their time preparing to fight the last war. In an attempt to mitigate the unease, this article will—after a rapid review of history—address the crucial legal issues we can expect to be front and center of hazardous substance litigation in the next several years. It is no secret that CERCLA was hastily and sloppily drafted in…

Patrick J. Paul & Christopher P. Colyer. As activity on the real estate transactional front continues to gain momentum, real estate practitioners need to increasingly be aware of due diligence requirements necessary to minimize or avoid liability under federal law—namely, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA” or “Superfund”). Performing the required due diligence prior to property acquisition is an essential prerequisite for three significant defenses to CERCLA liability—the Innocent Landowner, Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser (“BFPP”), and Contiguous Property Owner defenses—as well as to qualify for CERCLA Brownfield grants. The common thread to each of these CERCLA defenses and grants is the requirement that a purchaser or operator perform “All Appropriate Inquiry” (“AAI”) prior to acquisition. Performing AAI is not an idle exercise, as the United States Environmental…

Mark A. McGinnis, Esq. & R. Jeffrey Heilman, Esq. Water is and always has been an issue of critical importance in Arizona. Living in Arizona’s desert climate means that all economic activity, from agricultural and industrial enterprises to residential development, is entirely dependent on the state’s limited water supplies. Even today, Arizonans engaged in buying or selling real estate confront significant water issues, both legal and technical. This paper examines several of the issues that commonly arise in the context of real estate transactions. Although these issues most often arise with respect to transactions involving commercial or industrial property, some of the most perplexing problems can arise in the normal course of residential sales. The potential ramifications of unrecognized water issues are easy to appreciate. For example, a “prime commercial…

Gary E. Marchant. Uncertain risks present unique challenges to the law. Unlike science, which can always defer judgment until more data are generated and uncertainties are reduced, law must often come to final decisions on uncertain risks that are indeterminate and contested. A relatively new area of uncertain health and environmental risks, which often arise in the context of property transactions, is vapor intrusion. Although the potential for vapor intrusion has always been present on contaminated lands, it is only due to recent legal and policy changes that vapor intrusion evaluation has now become a part of almost every investigation of a potentially contaminated site, and many real estate transactions. This article describes this emerging problem, and the challenges and liability risks it presents for environmental transactions and remediation. Part…