Weekly Cases Update Volume 41, Issue 2

The cases listed below appear in the most recent issue of ELR's Weekly Update. For cases previously reported, please use the filter on the left.

Volume 40, Issue 34

ELR 20029No. F059293(Cal. App. 5th Dist. , )

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision denying a petition challenging the adequacy of a county's environmental analysis of a proposed surface mining operation on a 40-acre site in the foothills of the Southern Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Keywords:
Environmental Assessment/Impact Statement, Mining, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
ELR 20036No. 09-51079(5th Cir., )

The Fifth Circuit held that an energy company's current and ongoing construction of a coal-fired power plant, for which no maximum achievable control technology (MACT) determination has ever been made, violates CAA §112(g).

Keywords:
Maximum achievable control technology (MACT)
ELR 20033No. 2009-5100(Fed. Cir., )

The Federal Circuit upheld a lower court decision rejecting landowners' claims that the United States had taken their property without just compensation by erecting a log boom that prevented them from using a slough next to their property.

Keywords:
Permanent physical takings, Inverse condemnation
ELR 20025No. 08-36038(9th Circ., )

The Ninth Circuit held that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), but not NEPA, when it authorized Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to kill up to 85 California sea lions annually at the Bonneville Dam in order to protect salmon in the Columbia

Keywords:
California sea lion, Pinnipeds, §210, Marine mammals
ELR 20032No. 2:10-00673(S.D. W. Va., )

A district court dismissed a motion to dismiss environmental groups' citizen suit against five coal companies alleging thousands of violations of the CWA and SMCRA in West Virginia.

Keywords:
Settlement agreements, Citizen suits, §520, Citizen suits, §505
ELR 20034No. C 10-04038 JSW(N.D. Cal., )

A district court issued a preliminary injunction ordering genetically modified sugar beet seedlings—called stecklings—that were planted by four seed companies pursuant to permits issued by the USDA to be removed from the ground.

Keywords:
Agriculture, Injunctions, FRCP 65
ELR 20031No. 10-1216-MLB-KGG(D. Kan. , )

A district court dismissed landowners' OPA claim against a company for damages stemming from an oil spill in the Verdigris River in Kansas, but denied the company's motion to dismiss the landowners' nuisance claim.

Keywords:
Surface water, Oil Pollution Act (OPA)

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