The Seventh Circuit upholds the Coast Guard's assessment of a $2,000 civil penalty against the owner of a pipeline from which oil was spilled into navigable waters through the act of a third party. Section 311(b)(6) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act makes owners of facilities from which oil...

The court declines to issue a preliminary injunction against construction of an apartment complex in West Berlin after determining that the plaintiffs have filed to present a substantial case on the merits of their claim that the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) have been...

The court upholds a lower court's determination that appellees have a constitutional right to fish in a municipal reservoir and that the city must establish a program permitting recreational fishing in such waters. A 1910 amendment to the California Constitution guaranteeing a public right to fishin...

The Ninth Circuit affirms a lower court's dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction of a challenge to the California Water Quality Control Board's denial of a variance and issuance of a discharge permit under §402(b) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The assertion that the state a...

The Ninth Circuit affirms a lower court's judgment that a Bureau of Reclamation order requiring the removal of certain privately owned docks and houseboats from a federally created and owned lake did not constitute a taking of property without just compensation. The docks and houseboats have been al...

The court grants plaintiff's motion for summary judgment in a suit challenging the issuance by the Corps of Engineers of a permit to construct a diked facility for impounding dredge spoil within the Chesapeake Bay. In light of stipulations between the partners that the Chesapeake Bay is a navigable,...

The Ninth Circuit affirms a lower court's grant of summary judgment for defendants in a suit seeking to enjoin construction of offshore installations to receive and store oil and gas extracted from the outer continental shelf (OCS) until a license has been issued under the Deepwater Port Act. The co...

The court issues a preliminary injunction prohibiting the California Department of Transportation from conditioning a municipal airport's retention of a variance from applicable noise standards upon its adoption of an extended curfew on commercial operations. After finding that plaintiff and interve...

Granting in part and denying in part plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, the court rules that the Secretary of the Interior has no discretion under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 to deny preference right lease applications from prospectors who demonstrate the presence of commercial quantities ...

After a hearing at which both parties presented expert testimony concerning whether fluoridation of water presents a risk of cancer to the populace, the court determines that a sufficient risk exists to enjoin preliminarily further addition of fluorides to the municipal water supply under defendants...