The Ninth Circuit vacated a national pollutant discharge elimination system permit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued to a mining company allowing it to discharge copper into Arizona's Pinto Creek, a waterbody already in excess of water quality standards for copper. The applicable...

The district court granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the Callisto Surface Mine in Boone County, West Virginia. Irreparable harm to the environment as a result of the mining is nearly certain, and the outcomes of related cases suggest a sufficient likelihood of ...

A district court denied defendant's motion to dismiss for lack of standing in a citizen suit claim for injunctive relief pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) §7002. The fact that plaintiff did not hold legal title to the property at the commencement of its action does n...

The Federal Claims Court held that an electric utility is entitled to $116.485 million in mitigation damages for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) partial breach of a contract concerning the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The utility operates three nuclear reactors. DOE entered into a contrac...

A district court granted in part and denied in part two motions in limine by a third-party defendant to bar testimony by plaintiffs' two expert witnesses in a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act §§107 and 113 cost recovery and contribution action. Expert t...

The district court dismissed claims against individually named defendants. Defendants are not operators of a facility under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act due to defendants’ lack of involvement in day-to-day operations and in environmental compliance ...

The Tenth Circuit held that conservation groups may not intervene in a federal quiet title action brought by a Utah county against the U.S. government to quiet title to an unpaved road in the Canyonlands National Park. The groups opposed county control of the road and therefore sought to intervene a...

The Tenth Circuit reversed in part and affirmed in part a lower court decision dismissing a property owner's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and state-law claims concerning the purported migration of tar-like material from adjacent property. Both properties are located on a former oil ...

A district court dismissed an environmental group's claim against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for denying the group's listing petition seeking protection of the interior mountain quail as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The group argued that the distinct...

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) in approving the proposed expansion of a ski area in the Rogue River and Klamath National Forests. The Forest Service failed to properly evaluate th...