The D.C. Circuit upheld an EPA rule that classified as "recycled" certain hazardous material sent to a third-party reclamation facility and thus exempted the material from RCRA regulations governing discarded waste. Environmental groups argued the rule violated RCRA because material that a generator...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal of a challenge to the use of lead ammunition in Kaibab National Forest. Environmental groups sought to require the U.S. Forest Service to address the use of lead ammunition by hunters in the national forest, alleging the the Service's failure t...

A California jury awarded over $2 billion in compensatory and punitive damages to two residents who claimed that the weedkiller Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The jury found that the weedkiller's manufacturer was aware of the risks associated with its product and negligently failed to ad...

A state appellate court reversed a lower court ruling that struck down a county ordinance banning the use of certain pesticides for cosmetic purposes throughout the county. The lower court concluded the ordinance was preempted by state law, which allowed the sale of pesticides and the use of it on f...

The D.C. Circuit granted in part and denied in part an environmental group's petition to review EPA's 2017 Inventory Rule that imposed new reporting requirements under TSCA for chemical manufacturers and processors. The group argued that the rule failed to require companies to substantiate that a ch...

A district court denied a city's motion for a preliminary injunction in a RCRA lawsuit against two utility companies that owned a long-abandoned manufactured gas plant. The city alleged that the plant had contaminated soil in a nearby park and around a decommissioned water main, and sought to requir...

A U.S. jury awarded over $80 million in damages to a California man who claimed that the weedkiller Roundup caused his cancer. The jury found the man proved that Roundup's design was defective, that it lacked sufficient warnings of the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), and that the weedkiller's ma...

A district court granted residents' motion for summary judgment in a RCRA lawsuit against the city of New Orleans for inhumane and dangerous living conditions at a residential development located on a former landfill site previously operated by the city. The residents argued that the city had previo...

A district court denied EPA's motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two states and a Native American tribe seeking to recover response costs from the 2015 Gold King mine spill that sent millions of gallons of acid mine drainage into the Animas and San Juan Rivers. EPA argued that it retained sover...

The Sixth Circuit held that seepage from a coal-fired power plant that reached a nearby lake violated RCRA, but not the CWA. Environmental groups argued that the chemicals being stored in coal ash ponds contaminated the surrounding groundwater, which in turn contaminated a nearby lake, in violation ...