The court denies a petition to review a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that amended existing effluent limitations guidelines for the coal mining industry. The rule created the coal remining and western alkaline mining subcategories. Petitioners argued that the coal remining regulati...

A court holds that the United States may not impose civil fines against a pipeline operator for an oil spill that impacted an intermittent stream several miles from the nearest navigable water. The court concludes that the United States lacked jurisdiction because the stream does not constitute a na...

The court holds that the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) does not waive sovereign immunity for individuals who claim no adverse interest in the land at issue to challenge the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) issuance of a mining patent to a company under the 1872 Mining Law. Despite the presum...

The court held that a jury's award cleanup costs to a property owner for contamination stemming from an oil company's leaking pipeline must be reduced because the oil company did not obtain any benefits from the leak. Not only did the gasoline leakage result in a loss of product for the oil company,...

The court dismissed an individual's Clean Air Act (CAA) and state-law claims against an electric utility plant for lack of jurisdiction. The individual failed to comply with the CAA's notice requirements. His notice letter to the plant failed to sufficiently enable the plant to identify the dates th...

The court holds that §106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) does not provide for a private right-of-action against the United States. The case arose after a Native American tribe filed suit against the U.S. government seeking an injunction to maintain water levels in the San Carlos R...

A bankruptcy court disallows companies' claims against a debtor for costs associated with the cleanup of a variety of environmental hazardous waste at a recycling site in Wylie, Texas. The companies and the debtor, which are potentially responsible parties with respect to that site, entered into a p...

A court dismisses an environmental group's National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act (CWA), National Forest Management Act, and Administrative Procedure Act claims against the U.S. Forest Service in connection with a logging project in the Panhandle National Forest and denied their request ...

The court reverses and remands a district court decision denying a landowner's motion for attorney fees in a case concerning alleged Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) violations at a landfill. Although the landowner only prevailed on one of its RCRA claims, the distri...

The court holds that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries failed to analyze how plans to operate an irrigation project in the Klamath River Basin would avoid jeopardy to the southern Oregon/northern California Coast coho salmon and its habitat ...