A district court dismissed an environmental groups' citizen suit against a water authority for alleged CWA and state law violations in connection with the discharge of stormwater from a municipal separate storm sewer system to the Allegheny River. The groups did not argue that the authority violated...

In a 100+ page opinion, a district court vacated EPA's water transfers rule, which excludes water transfers that convey or connect "waters of the United States without subjecting the transferred water to intervening industrial, municipal, or commercial use" from the CWA's NPDES permitting requiremen...

A district court held that plaintiffs may go forward with their CWA citizen suit against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and a California water authority in a case involving the need for a NPDES permit for an irrigation project jointly administered by the two agencies. The plaintiffs pled sufficient ...

The Federal Claims Court awarded a Florida developer $4 million after finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' denial of the developer's §404 permit request to dredge and fill a five-acre plot of land effected a compensable taking. The Federal Circuit had previously ruled on appeal that the f...

The Federal Circuit held that the U.S. government did not breach its contract with two oil and gas exploration companies when it imposed new regulatory requirements after their lease went into effect. The companies jointly leased the mineral rights to land on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from t...

A district court held that environmental groups may go forward with their CWA lawsuit against a rail carrier for allowing coal dust from open-top rail cars to be released into U.S. waterways. At issue was whether coal dust from rail cars that falls onto land, rather than directly into the waters, of...

The Sixth Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers complied with NEPA and the CWA when it issued a §404 permit to a mining company for a secondary mining project that was part of a larger mining operation in Kentucky. The Kentucky Division of Mine Permits, which has exclusive jurisdiction...

A district court held that a natural resource damages (NRD) settlement agreement between New Jersey and an oil company for methyl tertiary butyl ether groundwater contamination bars the state from seeking product liability claims against the company. The agreement settled all claims for NRD at sites...

The Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a lawsuit filed by 11 Louisiana parishes in which they sought penalties under the Louisiana Wildlife Protection Statute for the pollution-related loss of aquatic life and wildlife following the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the ...

A district court dismissed New Jersey's claims against an oil company for groundwater contamination stemming from the company's use and handling of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). The state failed to allege that the company supplied gasoline at the site at issue. In light of the importance of si...