The Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas, sitting in Houston, unanimously affirmed the jury’s verdict that International Paper Company (IP) was not liable for large civil penalties as a result of the discharge of dioxin-contaminated paper mill waste.
The decision released on October 6, 2016 concerned a plant owned by IP’s predecessor in Pasadena that contracted with a waste removal service, whose waste storage leached into the San Jacinto River. 
The case, Harris County and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality v. International Paper Company concerned application of the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act. Champion Paper operated a paper mill in Pasadena near the San Jacinto river in the 1960s, and contracted with McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corporation to remove mill waste. McGinnes buried the waste in pits that, at the time, satisfied the Harris County authorities.
Several years later, Harris County and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) brought an environmental-civil penalty lawsuit against IP and McGinnes over the release of dioxin from the sludge pits. At least $ 1.6 billion in penalties was sought by Harris County and TCEQ. Recently, the San Jacinto Waste Pits were placed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s national priorities list (NPL) of active Superfund sites, and that EPA-directed cleanup is continuing.
After a long jury trial, McGinnes settled with the Harris County and TCEQ, but IP chose not to do so. The jury found that IP was not liable, and the trial court rendered a take-nothing judgment in IP’s favor.
Harris County and TCEQ appealed, but the court was not convinced, and the jury’s verdict and the trial court’s instructions were affirmed.
Source: JDSupra Business Advisor “Houston Court of Appeals Affirms Jury Verdict and Trial Court Instructions in San Jacinto Waste Pits Case” by Anthony Cavender, October 10, 2016