The Fourth Circuit upheld a district court's ruling that a coal company's NPDES permit did not shield it from liability under the CWA because it did not comply with the terms of the permit. In March 2013, three environmental groups filed an action against a West Virginia coal company, alleging that ...

A Washington State appellate court held that the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) can be held liable as an "owner or operator" under the state Model Toxic Control Act (MTCA) at the Port Gamble Bay and Mill site. The Department of Ecology determined that activities at the site between 1853...

The Tenth Circuit reversed a district court ruling that barred a mining company from pursuing a CERCLA contribution claim for the Lower Silver Creek/Richardson Flat site because of representations it made to a bankruptcy court concerning its settlement agreement with EPA. In 2009, as part of a Chapt...

The Fourth Circuit vacated for mootness a district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of conservation groups challenging the construction of a 22-mile toll road in Gaston County, North Carolina. The conservationists challenged the environmental analysis conducted by the state transportation ...

The Ninth Circuit held that BLM violated NEPA when it approved a proposed molybdenum mining operation near Eureka, Nevada. Environmental groups filed suit against BLM, challenging the agency's analysis of the project's cumulative air impacts and the baseline levels of certain air pollutants, and the...

The D.C. Circuit granted EPA's request to remand the NESHAPs for industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers to the Agency without vacatur so that it can conduct rulemaking to modify them in accordance with the court's earlier ruling. On July 29, 2016, the court granted in part and denied in p...

A district court, on cross-motions for summary judgment, held that a utility company should not be held liable under CERCLA for the release of hazardous substances on two properties owned by an energy company. The energy company brought this action under CERCLA to recover cleanup costs it incurred i...

A district court denied as untimely a newspaper’s motion to intervene in a case involving a 27-year-old CERCLA action. The newspaper claimed it had, under state law, the right to information related to confidential settlement negotiations that took place between the U.S. government and a mining co...

A district court denied in part and granted in part motions for summary judgment in a suit involving the effects of the Leavenworth [WA] National Fish Hatchery’s operation on endangered Chinook salmon and steelhead in Icicle Creek. An environmental group alleged NMFS's biological opinion (BiOp) an...

A district court held that EPA did not fail to carry out non-discretionary duties under the CWA when it failed to notify certain industrial and commercial dischargers that they are required to obtain discharge permits under the Rhode Island Pollution Discharge Elimination System and to provide them ...