The court vacatesand remands a district court's approval of a proposed consent decree settling the U.S. and California's Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) claims against a publicly owned sewage system and 150 local governmental entities for natural resour...

The court holds that Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §113(g)'s statute of limitation bars U.S. and California's claims for natural resources damages from a chemical company's DDT discharges and an electronics company's polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) di...

The court holds that an owner of contaminated land may not raise for the first time on appeal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107(b)(3)'s third-party defense or the "divisibility" doctrine set forth in O'Neil v. Picillo, 20 ELR 20115 (1st Cir. 1989), ...

The court grants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permission to enter a refinery site and adjacent property to complete a removal action under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §104. The court first holds that it lacks jurisdiction over the...

The court holds that a city pollution control official did not violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by searching a building allegedly undergoing asbestos removal without obtaining a warrant or the building owner's consent. The official conducted two searches of the building on the s...

The court holds that the McCarran Amendment waives U.S. sovereign immunity to an adjudication of water rights in Oregon's Klamath River Basin that involves administrative and judicial determinations. The McCarran Amendment consents to the joinder of the United States as a defendant in any suit for t...

The court affirms an individual's conviction for violating U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulation 36 C.F.R. §261.3(a) and (c) by interfering with two U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers who were carrying out their official duties on land adjacent to the Nez Perce National Forest ...

The court holds that three sloughs in North Dakota are isolated wetlands subject to Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) jurisdiction and that genuine issues of material fact preclude summary judgment on whether work a county performed on a drainage ditch that bisects the sloughs was exempt f...

The court denies a motion to reconsider its decision that a company that incurred response costs at an Indiana site pursuant to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency consent decree may bring a cost recovery action against nonsettling, third-party defendants under §107 of the Comprehensive Environm...

The court holds that two defendants convicted of storing hazardous waste without a permit in violation of §3008(d)(2) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and of operating a waste-water treatment facility in violation of §§307(d) and 309(c)(4) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act v...