A district court held that RCRA gives it the authority to grant a golf course's request for mandatory injunctive relief against a company to stop further contamination and to remediate past contamination, even though the company has already entered into a consent decree with the state environmental ...
A district court denied a waste hauling company's motion to dismiss a CERCLA suit filed against it for alleged soil and groundwater contamination contributed by its predecessor to a hazardous waste site in Chicago, Illinois. The company argued that the current owner of the site failed to sufficientl...
A district court ordered an oil company and the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) to produce more documents in a suit involving a civil investigative demand (CID) over the company's alleged attempts to cover up research about climate change so that the court could determine whether the case should...
A district court held that an Illinois excavation company was liable under the CWA for discharging pollutants into a river without a permit. The company discharged concrete, dirt, and other pollutants on the banks and bed of the Green River during its construction and maintenance of a levee. The com...
The Sixth Circuit, in litigation over the "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule, held that an internal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers memorandum critical of the rule's technical analysis may be included in the record. Petitioners argued that the litigation record omits several materials that were...
A district court held that BLM violated NEPA when it issued a FONSI in connection with an energy company's application to drill 16 new gas wells at its natural gas plant in northeastern Utah. Environmental groups alleged that BLM violated NEPA by failing to take a “hard look” at the environmenta...
The Ninth Circuit held that NMFS violated the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act when it excluded an historic net-fishing area of Cook Inlet from the salmon fishery management plan (FMP). The Magnuson-Stevens Act unambiguously requires a regional fishery management council to c...
A district court held that EPA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) need not turn over under FOIA certain documents concerning a potential violation of federal “revolving-door” prohibitions by a former member of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. EPA-OIG produced nearly 900 ...
A district court issued a preliminary injunction enjoining FWS from conducting or authorizing the take of wild red wolves on private land without first demonstrating that the wolf at issue is a threat to humans, pets, or livestock. Animal rights groups argued that prior to 2014, FWS interpreted its ...
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional portions of a 2012 law governing oil and gas operations in the Marcellus Shale. This is the second time the law, known as Act 13, has been reviewed by the court: in 2013, the court struck down provisions that limited the zoning powers of...