The Ninth Circuit held that fees incurred by a shipyard operator during its unsuccessful defense of a private party Clean Water Act lawsuit are not allowable costs under Subpart 31.2 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, 48 C.F.R. §§31.201-31.205. The costs of legal and other proceedings ...

A district court held that absent a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107 suit that is still pending, a potentially responsible party (PRP) may not bring a CERCLA§113(f) contribution action unless the federal courts have already established the...

The Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of residents' Clean Water Act (CWA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) claims against a nearby dairy for emitting hazardous pollutants into the environment. The residents argued that the dairy violated the CWA by operating as a concentrated anim...

A district court held that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it concluded that amendments to Florida's Everglades Forever Act complied with the Clean Water Act (CWA). The amendments extended the December 31, 2006, compliance deadline for meeting t...

The Seventh Circuit denied petitions for review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) decision not to object to operating permits for six coal-fired power plants proposed by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). A short time after EPA denied the petitions to object, it...

The Ninth Circuit denied California's petition to overturn a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision rejecting the state's Clean Air Act (CAA) waiver request that would have allowed it to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. In a December 19, 2007, letter to California ...

A district held an oil company jointly and severally liable under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for soil and groundwater contamination near a former refinery in Hartford, Illinois. The company must abate the existing and potential threats to human health and the environment posed by an ...

The Third Circuit upheld a lower court decision finding a waste hauler liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) in connection with the Malvern TCE Superfund site and ordering it to pay $1.5 million in contribution to parties cleaning up the site...

The Sixth Circuit held that landowners have an easement by reservation over a field-access road that crosses the Lower Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee but that the government may reasonably regulate that easement. Letters expressing prior deed holders' intent is admissible under the st...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court decision vacating a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation exempting ballast water and certain other marine discharges from the permitting scheme of Clean Water Act (CWA) §§301(a) and 402. The regulation, 40 C.F.R. §122.3(a), exemp...