A district court grants summary judgment in favor of environmental groups challenging the U.S. Forest Service's record of decision for 49 mining operations in the North Fork Burnt River watershed in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. The Forest Service violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) because it...

A district court holds that for purposes of issuing a search warrant, it is reasonable for a judge to conclude that there is probable cause to believe that Clean Water Act jurisdiction extends to a creek that runs behind and receives unpermitted human waste discharge from the defendants' farm labor ...

The court holds that a nonprofit organization lacks standing to challenge the legality of the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. None of the organization's members, at the time it filed its complaint, had suffered a redressable injury due to the establishme...

The court upholds a lower court's assignment and apportionment of liability for certain cleanup costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) concerning the Vertac Chemical Plant site in Jacksonville, Arkansas. The lower court properly concluded that ...

The court vacates and remands the dismissal of an individual's state-law claims against a retail store for selling her a wood-finishing product that emitted harmful fumes. The lower court concluded that because the product was properly labeled under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA) and it...

The court holds that an agency's duty to consult under §7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) arises only for affirmative actions. The phrase "failure to act" is absent from ESA §7(a)(2), which refers to "agency action" as "any action authorized, funded, or carried out by such agency." Thi...

The court dismisses a potentially responsible party's (PRP's) action for remedial costs under §107(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) as untimely. Although the PRP could not seek contribution under §113(f)(1), he could bring a cost reco...

The court denies a petition challenging a 2002 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that revised certain nationwide limitations on water pollutant discharges from sources in the cokemaking subcategory of the iron and steel industry. A petitioner challenged four effluent limitations that a...

The court holds that certain fishery management measures and regulations undertaken by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to protect chinook salmon in the Klamath Management Zone, an area off the coasts of California and Oregon, do not conflict with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservatio...

The court partially reverses the dismissal of environmental groups' complaint challenging a U.S. Forest Service logging project in the Dixie National Forest. The Forest Service's environmental impact statement for the project takes a hard look at the potential adverse environmental impacts of the pr...