The D.C. Circuit denied the federal government's motion to remand and vacate an OSM rule promulgated in December 2008 that regulates excess mining spoil, disposal of mine waste, stream buffer zones, and stream-channel diversions in connection with mountaintop and surface mining operations. An enviro...

A district court, on motions for summary judgment, held that defendant companies could not be held liable under CERCLA for contamination on property owned by its subsidiary. The plaintiff, successor-in-interest to one of the operable units at the site, argued that one of the companies is directly li...

A district court dismissed a citizen group's CAA lawsuit against a fossil-fuel-fired power plant for alleged permit, SIP, and new source performance standard violations. The group initiated suit after it concluded that the state environmental agency's negotiated settlement with the power plant did n...

A district court dismissed a defendant company's motions for summary judgment on claims filed against it for recovery of environmental response costs incurred during the plaintiff's investigation of a Superfund site. The case involves a Superfund site that includes three operable units. The plaintif...

The Federal Circuit upheld the dismissal of a local fish and wildlife commission's Fifth Amendment taking claim based on the United States' construction and operation of a navigation project on the Red River in Louisiana. The government's power to regulate navigation under the Commerce Clause confer...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision upholding the National Park Service's (NPS') management plan for the Colorado River that permits the continued use of motorized rafts and support equipment in Grand Canyon National Park. Environmental groups argued that such motorized activities impa...

A district court sitting in a multi-district litigation concerning water disputes between Alabama, Florida, and Georgia held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer violated §301 of the Water Supply Act (WSA) when it failed to seek congressional approval for actions it took with respect to water s...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's area designations for the annual NAAQS for fine particulate matter. Several states, counties, and industrial entities argued that by applying the consolidated metropolitan statistical areas presumption and a nine-factor test to identify areas that contribute to nearby P...

The Eighth Circuit upheld a lower court decision ordering a landowner who built a road on a parcel of wetlands without a permit to comply with a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' restoration order requiring him to restore the wetlands to their pre-violation condition. The lower court properly concluded ...

A district court remanded a 2005 FWS rule designating critical habitat for bull trout in the Klamath River and Columbia River. Shortly after it was issued, environmental groups filed a complaint challenging the rule as inadequate and contrary to law. In 2008, the DOI Office of the Inspector General ...