A district court held that an energy company must follow additional safety measures operating the Dakota Access pipeline while the environmental impacts of the project are being studied. In an earlier decision, the court held that the Dakota Access pipeline could continue to operate while the Army C...

The court holds a parent company liable for contribution under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) as a successor corporation to a chemical company that owned and operated an industrial facility in Ohio from 1926 until 1946. The current owner of the fac...

The court holds that a trustee, on behalf of a trust created for the cleanup of a contaminated industrial site, may seek contribution from other potentially responsible parties (PRPs). The PRPs, who are grantors to the trust, argued that the trust has not incurred response costs as required by the C...

The court affirms an appellate court's holding that a county ordinance and health board rules attempting to regulate swine farming are preempted by state law, but reversed the appellate court's holding approving a zoning ordinance that required swine farm operators to obtain a permit through complia...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service's (Forest Service's) decision to issue special use permits to motorized commercial fishing boats on the Rogue Wild and Scenic River (WSR) did not violate the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (WSRA) or the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), but that the Fore...

The court holds that some of an environmental group's challenges to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Endangered Species Act (ESA) take prohibition exemptions regarding salmon are not ripe, and that the NMFS was not arbitrary or capricious in promulgating the ESA §4(d) rule. The court fi...

The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not err when it refused to object to a county health district's issuance of a Clean Air Act (CAA) operating permit to a business. The court first holds that EPA did not err when it refused to object to the issuance of the operat...

The court holds that the Surface Transportation Board (Board) did not have to conduct an environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or the National Trails System Act (Trails Act) before issuing a certificate of interim trail use (CITU) for a rail line in Idaho under th...

The court affirms in part and vacates in part a lower court decision dismissing claims brought by the owner of several mill sites against the U.S. Forest Service for denying him use of his mining claims. In 1983 and 1984, the Forest Service authorized the owner to conduct operations at a site other ...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the criminal conviction of a Montana resident for violations of the CWA. The resident was sentenced to 18 months in prison and had to pay a $130,000 fine for digging ponds and diverting a creek onto his land in Montana and the neighboring Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest...