The court holds that a drilling platform owner's maritime tort claims against the owner and charterer of a vessel that was towing a seismic cable that struck a leg of the platform causing the cable to rupture and spill mineral oil into the ocean, can be asserted for purely economic loss and the owne...

The court holds that a coal company's challenge to reclamation fees it was assessed by the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) under the Surface Mining and Control Reclamation Act (SMCRA), is not required to be brought in the district court for the District of Columbia, and the company qualifies as a sur...

The court holds that a riparian landowner who operates a fishing and hunting guide service can maintain a tort action against an alleged polluter of several bodies of water in Louisiana used by the owner. The court finds that though fish are resources not personally owned until possessed, the ripari...

The court holds that an environmental group may bring a citizen suit under §7002(a)(1)(A) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) against a corporation for alleged violations of the Colorado hazardous waste program, which does not contain a citizen suit provision, because the state pro...

The court upholds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) final rule setting minimum federal criteria for municipal solid waste landfills promulgated under §4010(c) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and §405(d) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), but v...

The court holds that the city of Phoenix, Arizona, may intervene as of right in a Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) §505(a)(2) citizen suit to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate water quality standards for toxic pollutants for Arizona waters, to list impai...

The court holds that the United States has not waived its sovereign immunity to authorize the imposition of punitive civil penalties under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) for a federal facility's violation of a pollution permit issued directly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Age...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) when it issued a land and resource management plan for timber harvesting in the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas and Oklahoma and selected a vege...

The court holds that a present owner of land on which tanks containing asbestos and a small quantity of hazardous materials were disposed of is entitled to recover from the previous owner under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107. The court first ...

The court holds that the state of Washington's numeric water quality standard for dioxin discharge is invalid, because the state Department of Ecology failed to follow rulemaking procedures in adopting it. The court first holds that the pulp and paper mill operators, which were challenging the stand...