A district court, on motions for summary judgment, held that the owner of a farm violated the CWA when he allowed wetlands on his property to be tilled. The record shows that the farm discharged a pollutant to navigable waters from a point source without a permit. Soil is a pollutant, the wetlands o...

A district court ordered EPA to impose a "good neighbor” federal implementation plan (FIP) for Texas with respect to the 1997 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) NAAQS. In 2015, the D.C. Circuit invalidated portions of EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which included a FIP addressing interstate tr...

A district court preliminarily enjoined FWS from releasing endangered Mexican wolves in New Mexico without first obtaining the necessary permits from the state's game and wildlife agency. New Mexico law requires all persons who import and release non-domesticated animals to obtain a permit before do...

A district court held that West Virginia law preempts a county's ban on wastewater disposal wells. The ordinance effectively outlaws horizontal drilling anywhere in the county. It establishes a general, countywide ban on all storage of wastewater except for temporary storage of wastewater at drillin...

A district court struck down BLM's rule regulating hydraulic fracturing on federal and Native American lands. Although FLPMA authorizes BLM to take any action necessary to prevent unnecessary or undue degradation of the lands by regulation or otherwise, the government failed to demonstrate that BLM ...

The D.C. Circuit denied several states', environmental groups', and Native Americans' petitions for review challenging an NRC rule and generic EIS concerning the continued, and possibly indefinite, storage of spent fuel from nuclear power plants in the United States. The petitioners argued that NRC ...

The Ninth Circuit upheld BLM's decision to grant a right-of-way allowing a wind energy project to be built and operated on federal lands in southeast San Diego County. Community groups argued that BLM violated NEPA, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act i...

A district court dismissed on summary judgment environmental groups' lawsuit against a mining company for alleged SIP violations as it relates to NAAQS for coarse particular matter (PM10). Under the Utah SIP's "material moved" provision for PM10, total material moved (ore and waste) may not exceed 1...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a steel company's CAA citizen lawsuit seeking injunctive relief to stop a competitor from constructing or continuing to construct a steel mill. Arkansas's environmental agency already issued the competitor a preconstruction PSD permit. Ne...

The Sixth Circuit upheld a lower court decision sentencing an individual to 60 months in prison and ordered the individual and his co-defendants, jointly and severally, to pay $10,388,576.71 in restitution to EPA for asbestos NESHAPS violations. The individual and co-defendants formed a salvage comp...