The court affirms, with one exception, a $1.7-million damage award imposed on a shipping company for the costs incurred by the U.S. Coast Guard in monitoring the company's removal of an oil tanker that ran aground in the Shumagin Islands of Alaska. The court first holds that the Oil Pollution Act of...

The court holds that Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) §309(g) bars an FWPCA and Tennessee Water Quality Control Act (TWQCA) citizen suit against a city that discharged pollutants into U.S. waters in violation of its national pollutant discharge elimination system permit. The court first ...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) when it approved a land exchange with a timber company in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington State. Therefore, the court enjoins fu...

The court upholds a warehouse owner's and a lessee's convictions for violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), committing wire fraud, and receiving explosives without a permit. The owner and lessee entered into a contract with a chemical company to dispose of the company's unsalea...

The court holds that an Alaska state council and individual state legislators lacked standing under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) to challenge the federal management of the subsistence taking of fish and wildlife on federal public lands in Alaska. The court first holds...

The court limits environmental groups' discovery requests to the administrative record in a citizen suit alleging that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to perform certain Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) duties for Virginia rivers. The court...

The court denies in part and grants in part environmental groups' petition challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) reissuance of a hydropower license to two Oregon hydroelectric power projects. The court first holds that FERC reasonably used an environmental baseline of the e...

The court holds that a consent decree between environmental groups and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the establishment of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) in Virginia under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) is fair, adequate, and reasonable, and is not illeg...

The court upholds the U.S. Department of Labor's determination that a Native American tribal council is not entitled to tribal sovereign immunity in an underlying case in which the council allegedly violated the Safe Drinking Water Act's (SDWA's) whistleblower employee protection provisions. The cou...

The court holds that the District of Columbia's failure to submit any total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for 18 years triggered EPA's non-discretionary duty under Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) §303(d)(2) to approve or disapprove TMDLs f...