Most states recognize a nuisance as something that is injurious to health, offensive to the senses, or otherwise results in the decreased use and enjoyment of a person’s property. Nuisance lawsuits can arise from any single or combination of environmental exposures that result in the decreased use and enjoyment of your property. A nuisance can also arise from other types of activities that disrupt the enjoyment of your property, such as noisy activity in the middle of the night.
The goal of a nuisance action may be to enjoin or stop the cause or causes of the nuisance or to obtain compensation for the decreased use and enjoyment of your property.
A nuisance claim can be added to another environmental claim or can be brought on its own. For example, emissions from a local power plant may be causing air pollution, personal injury, and also may be a nuisance that is both injurious to health and decreases the use and enjoyment of one’s property. Other examples of activities that may lead to a nuisance are hog farming and the land application of “biosolids,” or sewage sludge.
