A district court adopted a magistrate judge's report and recommendation concluding that the government can establish CWA jurisdiction under either the plurality test or concurrence test set forth in Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715, 36 ELR 20116 (2006). The Third Circuit has yet to rule on the...

A district court granted EPA's motion for immediate access to contaminated property to conduct a removal action. The property owner denied access and argued that EPA's request is unreasonable because the property owner is conducting its own remedial actions at the site. But nothing in CERCLA require...

The Court of Federal Claims ordered the United States to pay three utility companies more than $142 million in a contract dispute arising from the government's failure to accept and dispose of radioactive waste from the utilities. In 1983, as provided by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), the Unit...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of environmental groups on claims that the BLM violated NEPA and the ESA in adopting amendments to its grazing regulations in 2006, but it vacated the court's grant of summary judgment on the groups' FLPMA claims. Among ot...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision upholding the NMFS' decision to list the steelhead, a type of Pacific salmon, as a threatened species in California's Central Valley. In listing the steelhead, the NMFS defined it as a distinct species under the ESA, separate from rainbow trout, anot...

The Ninth Circuit held that stormwater runoff from logging roads that is collected by and then discharged from a system of ditches, culverts, and channels is a point source discharge for which an NPDES permit is required. Accordingly, the court reversed a lower court decision dismissing an environme...

The Ninth Circuit reversed and vacated a lower court decision enjoining the U.S. Forest Service from certain logging activities in the Deschutes National Forest. The Forest Service sought to reduce the risk of fire and disease in a portion of the forest that was reserved for conservation and provide...

The Eighth Circuit upheld a lower court decision dismissing an environmental group's CAA citizen suit against a coal-fired power plant for failing to obtain permits for a series of modifications to the plant and exceeding applicable emission limits. Because the last of the modifications at issue was...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the FWS' designation of about 850,000 acres of land as critical habitat for 15 endangered or threatened vernal pool species. The court rejected claims that the FWS erred in classifying, as critical habitat, areas in which the physical or biological features essential to the ...

A district court held that a company that manufacturers a machine that recycles dirty perchloroethylene (PCE) for reuse in future dry cleaning is not liable as an arranger under CERCLA for the disposal of hazardous substances at a dry cleaning facility. The dry cleaning facility failed to demonstrat...