A district court dismissed a company's declaratory judgment action concerning its liability for cleanup costs that EPA incurred at the Hudson Oil Refinery Superfund site in Cushing, Oklahoma. The company owned and operated the site from 1943 to 1977, when it sold the refinery to the current owner. I...

A district court held that the owner of a contaminated property that was once the site of a paper mill may not seek response costs from a company that had purchased the assets of the prior owner of the mill. The owner argued that the company was liable under CERCLA under a de facto merger theory of ...

A district court dismissed a city's RCRA action against two power and gas companies concerning a methane gas leak from natural gas pipelines and waste oil contamination from a former manufacturing gas plant. Because methane gas does not meet the definition of "solid waste" under RCRA, the city canno...

The Washington Supreme Court held that a local initiative to create a "Community Bill of Rights" which, among other things, would give the Spokane River its own water rights, including the rights to sustainable recharge, sufficient flows to support native fish, and clean water, may not be placed on ...

The Second Circuit upheld a "depredation permit" FWS issued to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey authorizing the emergency "take" of migratory birds that threaten to interfere with aircraft at the John F. Kennedy International Airport. FWS issued the permit under 50 C.F.R. §21.41, which...

A district court held that a 2014 settlement agreement between a spinoff company, the U.S. government, an energy company, and its parent bars over 4,300 individuals from bringing Pennsylvania tort claims arising from the operation of a wood treatment plant formerly owned and operated by the spinoff'...

A district court denied mining companies' motion for summary judgment seeking to dismiss property owners' lawsuit against them for alleged subsidence damage. The coal companies, who lease the coal interests under the owners' property, engage in a mining technique known as "longwall mining," a form o...

A district court held that OSM violated NEPA when it approved a mining plan amendment that would expand a coal mine in Montana, and ordered the agency to prepare an updated EA within 240 days. Specifically, the court held that OSM violated NEPA's public participation and notice provisions when it fa...

The Eleventh Circuit denied the coal mining industry's petitions for review of a Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) regulation aimed at reducing black lung disease and other respiratory illnesses in miners. The petitioners challenged MSHA's authority to issue the rule under the Federal Min...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a proposed management plan for the Presidio, a former military base in San Franciso that is now a National Park and a National Historic Landmark, that provides for the construction of a 70,000 square foot lodge. The Presidio is managed by the Presidio Trust, a wholly owned g...