Adobe Whitewater Club of New Mexico v. New Mexico State Game Commission
The New Mexico Supreme Court overturned regulations promulgated by the State Game Commission in 2017 that outlined a process for landowners to obtain a certificate allowing them to close public access to segments of public water flowing over private property. Outdoor recreation advocates challenged ...
California State Water Resources Control Board v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The Ninth Circuit vacated FERC orders that held the California Water Resources Control Board had waived its authority to ensure certain hydroelectric projects complied with state water quality standards. The Board and environmental groups petitioned the court to review FERC's findings that the Board...
Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc. v. Regan
The D.C. Circuit vacated a district court's grant of summary judgment to EPA in a challenge to the Agency's approval of a permitting program for coal ash disposal facilities in Oklahoma. Environmental groups challenged EPA’s approval on several grounds under RCRA and the APA, and the district cour...
Garrison v. New Fashion Pork LLP
The Iowa Supreme Court, 4-3, affirmed a summary judgment order dismissing a landowner's nuisance, trespass, and drainage claims against a neighboring confined animal feeding operation (CAFO). The neighboring CAFO moved for summary judgment based on the statutory immunity enacted in Iowa's "right-to-...
Diamond Natural Resources Protection & Conservation Ass'n v. Diamond Valley Ranch, LLC
The Nevada Supreme Court held, 4-3, that the state's top water official had authority to approve a groundwater management plan (GMP) that deviated from the doctrine of prior appropriation for the over-appropriated Diamond Valley Hydrologic Basin. Senior rights holders in the basin sought to invalida...
Salisbury, North Carolina v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The D.C. Circuit upheld FERC's approval of a dam operator's flood protection plan for a nearby water pump station in North Carolina. A city petitioned for review of FERC's approval of the plan, a state-imposed condition of its water quality certification under the CWA, which involved raising the pum...