The court holds that a manufacturer that failed to apply for, but nevertheless claimed, an exemption from the national emission standard for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAPs) for benzene leaks is not liable for civil penalties resulting from violations of that NESHAP at its South Carolina plant. Th...

The court holds that claims that individuals who reside near a petroleum tank farm brought against its owner for damages resulting from releases of petroleum and petroleum vapors may not be preempted by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remedial orders under the Resource Conservation and Re...

The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) final decision granting "treatment as state" (TAS) status under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) to Native American tribes is supported by the administrative record, consistent with EPA's regulations, and not cont...

The court affirms a district court grant of summary judgment to defendant manufacturers of contaminated electrical transformers in a state-law suit by a utility that bought the transformers and paid Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) cleanup costs at the t...

The court affirms district court decisions upholding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (the Corps') grant of a Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) §404 permit for a highway through a historic district in Cobb's County, Georgia. The court first holds that the district court did not err in li...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), or NFMA regulations in deciding to award eight timber sales in the Upper Sunday Creek Watershed region of the Kootenai National Forest in northwest Mo...

The court holds that for purposes of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §301(g)(1)'s statute of limitations, the U.S. Department of the Interior's (DOI's) "Type B" natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) regulations were promulgated, at the latest, when...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service complied with the National Environmental Policy Act's (NEPA's) requirement that it take a "hard look" at the environmental consequences of proposed timber harvests and sales in two areas of the Nez Perce National Forest. The Forest Service examined the ef...

The court holds that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) requires the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), by January 31, 1998, to begin disposing of the spent nuclear fuel of parties that paid for such disposal, even if DOE does not yet have a repository for it. NWPA §305(a)(5)(B) states that "in retu...

The court holds that a neighborhood association's federal civil-rights claims that a county discriminated in siting and permitting a solid waste landfill in their neighborhood accrued from the date the county's board of commissioners selected the site, rather than the date the county acquired an int...