A Virginia appeals court held that ash from incineration of biosolids at a wastewater treatment plant cannot be used to raise the ground level of a flood-prone agricultural field. In 2008, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) began using the ash to raise the ground level of flood-prone field...

A district court held that a mining company will not face CERCLA liability as a successor to another company because there was no overlap in ownership. The mining company and a lumber company purchased adjacent lots from an industrial company whose subsidiary operated a zinc and lead mine on what is...

The Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, decided that the owners of a family cottage were not entitled to compensation over development regulations that bar the sale of the family's adjacent lot. The family wanted to sell the lot to finance an upgrade to their cottage, and argued that St. Croix County,...

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the legislature’s diversion of oil and gas royalties from public lands to the general fund for non-conservation purposes violated the state constitution. In 1955, the legislature created an oil and gas lease fund, and required all rents and royalties from o...

The Second Circuit, in a summary order, affirmed a lower court decision that an insurance company has no duty to defend a plumbing company in an underlying state suit related to chemical contamination at Love Canal near Niagara Falls, New York. The allegations in the state action fall within the ins...

The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, held that the United States is not liable under CERCLA for hazardous waste contamination at a former mine site in Idaho. A district court held the owners of the site liable for EPA's and the U.S. Forest Service's cleanup costs at the site, and the owners...

A district court held that the approval of a mining project in Montana violated the ESA. A mining company submitted a plan to the Forest Service and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to extract copper and silver from an ore vein that ran beneath federal land. On March 31, 2014, FW...

A district court held that the approval of a mining project in Montana violated NEPA, the CWA, and the National Forest Management Act. A mining company submitted a plan to the Forest Service and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to extract copper and silver from an ore vein that ...

The Ninth Circuit vacated EPA's conditional registration of a pesticide because the Agency failed to support its requisite finding that registration was in the public interest. A pesticide manufacturer applied to register a pesticide that uses nanosilver as its active ingredient. EPA conditionally r...

The First Circuit struck down two Puerto Rican municipalities' ban of the disposal of coal ash at landfills within their borders. In 2015, Puerto Rico's Environmental Quality Board (EQB) approved a request from two landfills to receive coal ash from a coal-fired energy plant. Two years prior, the mu...