The government may properly prosecute willful discharge of gasoline under the criminal provisions of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA). Witnesses noticed defendant activating machinery that pumped 200-300 gallons of gasoline into Lake St. Clair, a navigable waterway. The evidence suppo...

The court upholds the constitutionality of a New York statute requiring removal without compensation of billboards in Catskill Park. Plaintiff owns 96 signs, most of which are located within 660 feet of federally aided highways passing through Catskill Park, and all of which are ineligible for permi...

The court denies defendants' motion to dismiss this National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) challenge to the Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Protection Project as barred by laches or for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Laches is not judicially favored as a defense in environ...

The court orders the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to issue mine tailing disposal permits to Reserve for the Milepost 7 site. The DNR and the Pollution Control Agency (PCA) accepted the findings of a hearing officer that Milepost 20 was the best site for such disposal. By statute, ...

The Illinois Supreme Court affirms the trial court's decision holding that the Illinois Attorney General is the only state official with capacity to institute and prosecute enforcement actions before the Pollution Control Board. Section 4(e) of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act, Ill. Rev. St...

On remand from the Fifth Circuit, the court orders the defendant developer, which filled wetlands and dredged a number of canals without the required federal permits, to implement within 60 days the restoration plan proposed by the government. The remedial plan, which includes making the canals shal...

The Fifth Circuit denies defendant's motion for emergency interim relief from the district court's restoration order.
Counsel are listed at 7 ELR 20284.
Before Goldberg, Clark & Fay, C.J., full_html...

In an action to compel restoration of a river to its natural course, the court denies defendants' motion for summary judgment for reason that substantial fact questions remain regarding the river's navigability and federal participation in a rechanneling project. The Army Corps of Engineers, acting ...

The court upholds a local ordinance prohibiting the operation of vehicles on Fire Island without a permit and limiting permits to year-round residences insofar as it applies within the town of Islip. Protection of the fragile ecology of Fire Island provides a sufficiently reasonable basis for the or...

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission was not required to prepare an environmental effects report under the Maryland Environmental Policy Act before purchasing a tract of land for use as a disposal site for sewage sludge. Acquisition of the land was not a "proposed state action" within the mea...