The Second Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision dismissing New York's Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) claims against the shareholder-distributees of a dissolved Delaware corporation but denying the corporation trustees' m...

A district court dismissed farm and development groups' lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Fisheries (NOAA-Fisheries) for distinguishing between hatchery-bred and wild salmon populations in its listing determinations for 16 population segments of Pacific salmon. Spec...

The Ninth Circuit, withdrawing its previous opinion filed August 19, 2006, held that a pond and its surrounding wetlands adjacent to the Russian River in northern California was protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA). In its previous opinion, the court found that the pond, which receives wastewat...

The Third Circuit, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Atlantic Research Corp., 127 S. Ct. 2331, 37 ELR 20139 (2007), affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision dismissing a town's cost recovery action against the owners of a contaminated tract of land...

The First Circuit, in a dispute among two Native American tribes, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the state of Maine, affirmed in part and vacated in part an EPA order partially ceding Clean Water Act discharge permitting authority to the state. The order was affirmed insofar as ...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a developer's conviction for altering the flow of waters of an intermittent, seasonal creek in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). For 20 years, the developer used heavy equipment to re-route and reshape the creek in an attempt to convert the original three channels of...

The Third Circuit held that a lower court erred in sustaining the Office of Surface Mining's (OSM's) decision to terminate a program-deficiency notice issued to Pennsylvania as well as a required amendment in connection with the commonwealth's surface coal mining and reclamation program. The program...

A district court held that the owner and the operator of a hazardous waste site in Chicago, Illinois, are jointly and severally liable to the U.S. government for $2,681,337.79 in damages. The government put forth evidence that it incurred $2,543,748.92 in response costs, and neither defendant argued...

The Eighth Circuit upheld a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ruling that a farmer was ineligible to receive certain USDA benefits because he converted wetlands for agricultural use in violation of the Food Security Act of 1985, commonly referred to as "Swampbuster." The lower court properly det...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court order invalidating the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) plan to log nearly 1,000 acres of protected land in Southwest Oregon after a major forest fire. BLM misinterpreted the relevant land use plan to allow the logging. Specifically, it relied on an erroneou...