The court affirmed a lower court judgment that citizen groups that filed suit against two farms for spilling swine wastewater into North Carolina rivers without a national pollutant discharge elimination system permit satisfied the jurisdictional requirements for bringing a citizen suit under the Cl...

The court held that a district court's referral of the equitable allocation portion of a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act contribution action to a magistrate judge was an improper delegation of its traditional adjudicatory function. In conducting the equitable al...

The Eighth Circuit upheld a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) decision finding a county liable under the Clean Air Act for asbestos violations at a county landfill. EPA had jurisdiction under CAA §113(d)(1) to bring an administrative action against the...

The D.C. Circuit held that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) determination that methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) should not be delisted from the toxic release inventory (TRI) was based on an impermissible construction of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA). There...

A district court dismissed a water district's nuisance and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) cost recovery claims against a chemical company for contamination on its land, but denied the company's motion to dismiss the water district's contribution and Re...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that §136v(b) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) does not preclude states from providing a remedy to farmers and others who are injured as a result of a manufacturer's violation of FIFRA's labeling requirement. FIFRA §136v(b) pree...

The Fifth Circuit held that when a party withdraws one of its claims before the trial court enters judgment and the action is subsequently dismissed on the merits, the trial court's failure to indicate that the withdrawn claim was dismissed without prejudice does not render its decision a "final jud...

The Seventh Circuit held that a citizens suit seeking to challenge cleanup efforts at Superfund sites in Indiana was improperly dismissed. The lower court improperly concluded that the action was premature because active remedial planning was underway. For the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (E...

The D.C. Circuit held that in renewing a company's license to operate a hydroelectric project, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not err in requiring the company to develop and implement a plan to monitor invasive plant species at the project. FERC has authority to require the plan...

The Second Circuit affirmed individuals' convictions for violating the Clean Air Act's (CAA's) asbestos work practice standards but vacated the individuals' sentences. The lower court's instructions, which permitted the jury to convict the individuals without finding that they were aware of asbestos...