A district court granted a city's motion for summary judgment on landowners' counterclaims against it in a condemnation proceeding involving a piece of private property. After the property's value was assessed, the city deposited the award into a special account and the landowners then withdrew the ...

The Third Circuit affirmed a lower court's injunction under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requiring a company to clean up a chromium-contaminated site along the Hackensack River in New Jersey. The company conceded that it is legally responsible for the site and that chromium is b...

The Fifth Circuit upheld the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission's final order against an individual, who allowed workers to be exposed to asbestos during a building renovation project, for various violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and associated safety and ...

The D.C. Circuit granted a petition for review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) approval of a regional alternative plan under the annex rule, which allows states to reduce regional haze by alternate means, including emissions trading programs, so long as the alternative would im...

The First Circuit upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (the Corps') issuance of a navigability permit under §10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA) for the construction and maintenance of a data tower on the outer continental shelf (OCS) in Nantucket Sound. The Corps had jurisdiction to iss...

The court holds that water that has left its natural state and then is subjected to a man-made control constitutes an "addition" upon its return to the same navigable waterway. The operator of a dam filed suit against a state agency after it certified the dam with conditions. The operator argued tha...

A district court held that a company that concededly bears some legal responsibility under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for contamination at particular sites but has not been the subject of a previous civil action under CERCLA §§106 or ...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision enjoining defendant property owners from maintaining gates across a private roadway easement owned by plaintiff property owners. The lower court did not err in failing to consider whether the gates unreasonably interfered with the plaintif...

The Seventh Circuit held that a farmer who converted wetlands on his land to agricultural use is ineligible for federal agricultural subsidies under the swampbuster legislation. An exception to this legislation allows subsidies for wetlands that had been drained and farmed prior to December 23, 1985...

The Ninth Circuit held that the Energy Policy and Conservation Act does not preempt California appliance regulations requiring appliance manufacturers to submit data about their appliances, mark their appliances with brand name and performance information, and be subjected to compliance and enforcem...