The U.S. Supreme Court held that Wyoming did not violate the Yellowstone River Compact by allowing its pre-1950 water appropriators to increase their net water consumption by improving the efficiency of their irrigation systems. The compact protects beneficial use water rights in existence prio...

A district court held that an insurance company must defend its insured in an underlying case involving minors' exposure to contaminated drinking water stemming from the insured's property. When the insurer refused to defend the insured, the insured filed suit against the insurance company for ...

A district court dismissed a mining industry association's action challenging DOI Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) regulations allocating the burden of proof in five types of administrative proceedings under SMCRA. The association argued that the regulations impermissibly shift the ultimate...

The D.C. Circuit denied a petition challenging a magnesium plant's inclusion on the NPL. EPA uses a hazard ranking system (HRS) to determine whether to place a site on the NPL. Petitioners argued that EPA erred in calculating the HRS score and that if these errors were corrected, the site's ...

A district court held unconstitutional California legislation (SB 990) that prescribes cleanup rules that apply only to a former federal nuclear research and rocket testing facility and criminalizes any sale or disposition of the property until it is cleaned up in accordance with the standards ...

A district court held that mining interests may go forward with their CWA, APA, and SMCRA claims against EPA in connection with memoranda and guidance documents concerning permitting processes for coal mining. The documents meet the criteria of final agency actions. The government's view of ...

A district court held that a property owner that filed a RCRA, CAA, and CWA citizen suit against a mine may not intervene in the United States' and Missouri's enforcement action against the same mine for the same violations. Because the owner was concerned that several issues in its pending lawsuit ...

The Third Circuit held that a property owner's nuisance, negligence, and strict liability claims against a neighboring landfill are not continuing torts and, thus, are barred by the statute of limitations. In 1991, the owner's predecessor in interest was denied leave to intervene in a cost recovery ...

A district court denied a triglyceride diesel fuel manufacturer's motion to preliminarily enjoin the American Society for Testing and Materials' (ATSM's) promulgation of a proposed new standard and guidelines for biofuels that would limit, if not bar, the use of triglyceride diesel fuel and rel...

The Federal Circuit upheld a lower court decision awarding an energy company $42.7 million for the government's breach of contract relating to spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage costs at one of the company's facilities. Included in the company's claim for interim storage costs were the costs incu...