The court preliminarily enjoins the Environmental Protection agency (EPA) Administrator from enforcing the current Nevada air quality implementation plan against a copper smelter for which the state has granted a one-year variance of the plan's continuous emission control requirement. The court rule...

Reversing the district court, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals holds that the ownership determination of animals under §5 of the Wild, Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (the Act), 16 U.S.C. §§1131-1140, ELR 41834, is to be made by federal officials. The Act brings "all unbranded...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) must prepare a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) impact statement in connection with an enforcement proceeding seeking divestiture of certain pipelines and refining capacity by nine oil companies. The companies have standing to maintain this action under NEP...

Affirming the trial court's grant of plaintiff-appellee's motion for summary judgment, the court rejects alleged state reservation of title in non-meandered lakes within lands held by paper title for more than 30 years by plaintiff development company.
Plaintiff sought a declaratory judgment agains...

The court enjoins acquisition of land and construction of highway improvements pending preparation of an adequate environmental impact statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act. Plaintiff has standing to bring this suit under City of Davis v. Coleman, 5 ELR 20633 (9th Cir. 1975). T...

Affirming the lower court's grant of summary judgment for defendants, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals blocks plaintiffs' attempts to enjoin construction of the Oahe Diversion Unit of the Missouri River Basin Project. The Oahe Unit is intended to divert water from an existing reservoir for indust...

Regulatory land use controls adopted by Martha's Vineyard Commission, being regional in scope, supersede a less restrictive local zoning bylaw. Plaintiff owns undeveloped parcels near Sengekontacket Pond, a major tidal pond on Martha's Vineyard, and had planned to develop the parcels pursuant to the...

In a case of first impression in Texas dealing directly with land subsidence caused by withdrawal of groundwater, the court holds that if a landowner negligently withdraws water from his property so that the withdrawal is the proximate cause of subsidence of another's land, the fact that he owns the...

The Illinois Supreme Court holds that a statute conveying 194.6 acres of Lake Michigan submerged lands to United States Steel violates the public trust doctrine. The statute, passed in 1963, was challenged by a taxpayer, whose suit was dismissed for lack of standing. Droste v. Kerner, 34 Ill. 2d 495...

The Ninth Circuit affirms a lower court's judgment, 6 ELR 20120, that §8 of the Reclamation Act of 1902 does not require the United States to obtain from the California State Water Resources Control Board a permit to appropriate unappropriated water from the Stanislaus River for the New Melones dam...