The court rules that Pacific Northwest Indian treaties grant Indians the right to harvest a share of hatchery fish, but the court declines to grant declaratory judgment on whether the treaties create environmental rights or obligations concerning protection of fish habitat. The court first holds tha...

The court rejects a number of challenges to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California, including objections to NRC's consideration of the complicating effects of earthquakes on emergency planning procedures.
The court first reviews the seve...

The court holds that federal involvement in planning and construction of the Barbers Point, Hawaii deep draft harbor has not violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) or the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and that plaintiff lacks standing to challenge the project's cost-benefit analysis u...

In a case combining an enforcement action by the United States against Texaco, Inc., and a related declaratory judgment action by Texaco and several other oil companies against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the court holds that the United States may bring a Clean Air Act §113 enforceme...

The court rules that people alleging injuries from toxic chemicals leaking into their property from a neighboring landfill may bring an action for a medical surveillance trust fund and cleanup injunction. The court initially denies defendants' motion to strike the complaint for failing to specify th...

The court holds that a citizens' suit under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) to compel the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve an application for a sewage treatment construction grant is not a suit for money damages, and that the EPA Administrator was...

The court rules that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction to hear plaintiff's challenge to a proposed federal-state remedial investigation/feasibility study (RI/FS) of a New Jersey hazardous waste site to be cleaned up under §104 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liabil...

The court rules that a municipality may be a "state" for purposes of recovery under §107(a)(4)(A) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and that CERCLA authorizes recovery of response costs incurred before the Act became law. The court first rules tha...

The court holds that in an action brought by the United States under §311(f)(1) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) to recover expenses incurred in cleaning up an oil spill the appropriate statute of limitations is determined by 28 U.S.C. §2415, and that the appropriate limitation i...

The court rules that a district court lacks authority to bar reallocation or other disposal of Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) sewage treatment construction grants allocated to Detroit for a fiscal year, but unobligated. In 1979 the United States and Detroit settled an FWPCA enforcement ...