The U.S. Supreme Court holds that a Native American tribe's and U.S. claims to additional water rights from the Colorado River are not precluded by a previous Court decision or by a 1983 consent decree entered into by the United States and the tribe. The tribe's and the government's present claims a...

The court holds that a trial court erred in resolving water right priorities in an overdrafted basin with a "physical solution" that relies on the equitable apportionment doctrine but does not consider the affected owners' legal rights in the basin. Landowners who had overlying water rights in the M...

The court holds that a manufacturer is liable for response costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for dumping scrap steel and aluminum at a Superfund site. The court also grants another company's motion to certify for interlocutory appeal wheth...

The court holds that the U.S. government is not liable as an operator under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for hazardous waste cleanup costs at an abandoned mine site. The court first holds that CERCLA clearly exposes the federal government to suit...

The court holds that a defendant-operator company and a defendant-transporter company are liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for costs incurred in cleaning up the MIG/De Wane Superfund site in Illinois, and orders them each to pay over $2 ...

The Seventh Circuit dismissed Michigan's petition for review of an EPA rule redesignating certain Native American lands to Class I status under the CAA's prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) program. Michigan's challenge raises some important issues about the PSD program's regulatory struct...

The court dismisses a township's and construction company's lawsuit against a city under the Clean Water Act (CWA) for failing to extend wastewater treatment services outside the city's boundary, even though the outlying area was included in the city's plan for a federally funded waste treatment pla...

The court holds that under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the former owners of a contaminated site in Georgia are liable for the disposal of hazardous waste at the site. A potentially responsible party (PRP) shipped containers of hazardous waste t...

A district court denied EPA's motion to dismiss an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the Agency's administrative stay of two rules setting forth hazardous air emission standards for boilers and commercial and industrial solid waste incineration units. EPA argued that the court lacked jurisdi...

A district court held that EPA's Multi-Criteria Integrated Resource (MCIR) Assessment and Enhanced Coordination (EC) Process, adopted to screen mountaintop mining permits, violates the CWA and the APA. The MCIR Assessment involves EPA applying the CWA §404(b)(1) guidelines and directing the Corps o...