The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision dismissing fishermen's NEPA claims against the Bureau of Reclamation in connection with its approval of eight interim two-year contracts for delivery of water from the Central Valley Project to...
A district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by individual miners and various mining groups, associations, and businesses challenging an Oregon law that temporarily bans instream motorized mining to protect water quality and fish habitat. The law, with some exceptions, temporarily prohibits instream...
A Montana court vacated and remanded a water discharge permit that the state's environmental agency issued to a coal mine in southeastern Montana. The agency's decisions are arbitrary and not supported by the law, and when viewed in its totality, the record demonstrates clear errors of judgment with...
A district court held that conservation groups lacked standing to challenge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to reissue a nationwide permit (NWP 13) authorizing the discharge of dredged and fill material to construct bank stabilization projects. The groups alleged that the Corps reissued...
An Illinois appellate court held that the Illinois Pollution Control Board erred when it upheld the state environmental agency's decision to reissue NPDES permits for three large water reclamation plants in the Chicago area. Petitioners argued that the permits fail to include conditions ensuring tha...
A North Carolina appellate court upheld a trial court's decision to cap a property owner's award of remediation damages to the diminution in property value, not the amount it would cost to clean up the property, thereby reducing a jury's award from $1.5 million to $108,500. The case involves a prope...
The Sixth Circuit held that it has jurisdiction to hear numerous lawsuits challenging EPA's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule. The rule went into effect on August 28, 2015, but on October 9, 2015, the court issued a nationwide stay of the rule pending f...
The Washington Supreme Court held that a local initiative to create a "Community Bill of Rights" which, among other things, would give the Spokane River its own water rights, including the rights to sustainable recharge, sufficient flows to support native fish, and clean water, may not be placed on ...
A district court held that environmental groups lacked standing to challenge EPA's decision not to object to a draft water discharge permit that Arkansas' environmental agency issued to a pulp and paper company under the state's CWA NPDES permit program. The groups sought an order declaring that the...
A district court, in a 126-page opinion, dismissed environmental groups' NEPA lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Transportation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Federal Highway Administration in connection with a proposed six-lane, 50-mile highway project north of Birmingham, Alabam...