The court upholds a New Jersey regulation that creates a 300-foot buffer on each side of water bodies designated as "Category 1" waters and their associated perennial or intermittent streams. Category 1 waters exhibit exceptional characteristics that require special protection. The regulation falls ...

A court holds that regulations promulgated in 1982 require the U.S. Forest Service to maintain the viability of the sage grouse as a management indicator species for the Curlew National Grassland. Although the 1982 regulations were rescinded by regulations taking effect in 2005, the Curlew continues...

A court holds that a manufacturing company need not contribute to response costs incurred by the owner of a landfill near Seneca Falls, New York. The landfill was closed in 1974, but the owner was ordered to remediate the site after it decided to reopen and expand the landfill. The evidence suggests...

The court vacates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) approval of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) limiting the annual discharge of oxygen-depleting pollutants and the seasonal discharge of pollutants contributing to turbidity in the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. EPA argued tha...

The court upholds the dismissal of a power plant owner's suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for refusing to grant its request for a formal evidentiary hearing on the plant's national pollutant discharge elimination system permit. Because there was no clear and unambiguous co...

The court reverses a lower court's partial grant of summary judgment in favor of an environmental group claiming that a power plant violated the opacity limits set forth in its Clean Air Act Title V operating permit. The permit and a Georgia rule each include a startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SS...

The court upholds a lower court decision that a 123-acre timber-thinning project to treat beetle-infested trees in Utah's Fishlake National Forest complied with the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act, and the Adminstrative Procedure Act. An environmental group argu...

The court reverses a district court's denial of environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin two U.S. Forest Service post-fire restoration projects in the El Dorado National Forest. The groups argued that the environmental impact statements (EIS) for the projects did not comply with the Nati...

The court grants the U.S. Forest Service's motion to dismiss claims that a special use permit authorizing a water supply company to store water on certain lands within the Roosevelt National Forest violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). The district court's decision that the pe...

The court partially affirms a judgment and award of damages in favor of a subcontractor hired to remove asbestos prior to a housing project's demolition. The evidence supported a jury's findings that the demolition company breached its contract with the subcontractor. Although the demolition company...