The Third Circuit reverses the district court's decision and holds that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acted arbitrarily and capriciously in requiring a ban on sewer hookups in floodplain areas as a condition to receiving a municipal sewage treatment grant. First, the court determines tha...

The court rules that defendant is strictly liable for pollution of plaintiffs' wells caused by defendant's disposal of waste water, and that punitive damages and damages for mental suffering are proper. The court holds that the ponding of waste water adjacent to plaintiffs' wells was an abnormally d...

On remand from the Fifth Circuit, 6 ELR 20219, the court holds that a developer who dredged two canals in a Florida wetland, while failing to obtain the requisite permits under §404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and §10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, must comply with a Corps of Engine...

The Eighth Circuit rules that it lacks jurisdiction over challenges to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants of interim status to hazardous waste disposal facilities under §3005(e) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and transfers the case to a district court. Initially, th...

The court holds that plaintiff may be awarded attorney fees and costs at the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior for citizen suits brought under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) to the extent that plaintiff's efforts resulted in administrative proceedings and final orde...

The court rules that §4005 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) does not ban open dumping of solid wastes. In the city's challenge to the county's construction of a dump site, both parties construed §4005(a) to be a direct, self-executing federal prohibition on open dumping. The co...

The court affirms in part and remands in part three consolidated decisions of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Quality Engineering (DEQE) approving with conditions the construction of a diesel-powered cogeneration facility. First, the court holds that a state air quality regulation pros...

In three consolidated cases, the court upholds, against motions for summary judgment, the Secretary of the Interior's surface coal mining unsuitability designation of federal land, pursuant to §522 of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). First, the court holds that §526 of SMCRA...

Following the court's previous order, 12 ELR 20191, enjoining the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) from awarding highway funds to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a sanction for its failure to implement an automobile inspection and maintenance program, the court disapproves for th...

In the majority opinion, 13 ELF 20126, the court ruled that the Northwest Indian treaties give seven tribes the right to a share of hatchery fish, but do not give the tribes an absolute right to a supply of fish nor an absolute right to have fish habitat protected from degradation. In this addition ...