The U.S. Supreme Court holds that a private party voluntarily cleaning contaminated property may not sue to recover costs from a potentially responsible party (PRP) unless the private party had been sued or civilly compelled to clean the site under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensat...

The Tenth Circuit held that owners of land adjacent to a Superfund site may not go forward with their cost-recovery action under §107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. The court below dismissed their claim because they were potentially responsible par...

The D.C. Circuit denies a petition for review of the U.S. Environmental Protecton Agency's (EPA's) whole effluent toxicity (WET) tests for water quality. While EPA concedes that its WET tests do not incorporate every one of its usual criteria and procedures for ensuring the scientific validity of th...

The Sixth Circuit upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (the Corps') denial of developers' application for a construction permit. Because the wetlands on the property are separated from a tributary of "waters of the United States" only by a man-made berm or barrier, they are considered "adjacent ...

A district court vacated and remanded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') designation of critical habitat in North Carolina for the wintering piper plover. The FWS may only designate occupied critical habitat in areas where the pertinent physical or biological features of the bird are curren...

The Sixth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision and held that two environmental groups have standing to bring suit against a city for violating its national pollutant discharge elimination system permit. The permit authorized limited discharges of effluent into a river and imposed mon...

A district court holds that a Canadian corporation that generated and disposed of hazardous substances directly into the Columbia River that were carried downstream into the waters of the United States must conduct a remedial investigation/feasibility study pursuant to a unilateral administrative or...

The Delaware Supreme Court held that the state environmental agency lawfully determined the "base fee" to be paid by a company under Delaware's Clean Air Act Title V operating permits program. The assessment was neither a regulation nor a case decision. Rather, the agency implemented a statutory dir...

The Tenth Circuit held that §103 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), which sets out reporting requirements for the release of hazardous substances from farming facilities, does not require each individual barn, lagoon, and land application area...

The First Circuit vacated and remanded individuals' convictions for illegally entering waters designated by the U.S. Navy as a danger zone under 18 U.S.C. §1382 during a military training exercise. The Navy's national pollutant discharge elimination system permit was valid despite being denied ...