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...

A district court set aside permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to members of the limestone mining industry to conduct mining in water conservation areas in Florida. Keeping limestone products available for purchase from local producers and collec...

The Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court decision that the U.S. Forest Service complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) in conjunction with its approval of a logging project within the Rio Grande National Forest. The Forest Service compli...

The court reversed and remanded a lower court judgment denying environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin the U.S. Forest Service's selective logging of 3,829 acres of forest in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. The groups demonstrated a probability of success on the merits and a possi...

The court vacated portions of two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that regulate hazardous air pollution from processing plywood and composite wood products (PCWPs). The 2004 rule set emission standards for PCWPs and created a PCWP “low risk” subcategory, pursuant to Clea...