The court holds that a citizen suit alleging violation of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) in connection with discharges from a town's sewage treatment facility is barred under FWPCA §309(g)(6) because the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is diligently prose...
The court holds that the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA) and the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) preempt an Indian tribe's ordinance that would regulate a nuclear power plant operator's efforts to transport various radioactive materials to the plant. A Minnesota power company operates the plan...
The court holds that Portland, Oregon, did not violate the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) by discharging pollutants through combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into the Willamette River and the Columbia Slough, and that a reference to water quality standards in a 1984 national pollutant dis...
The court, in a case of first impression, holds that state-imposed non-tax punitive civil penalties assessed post-petition against a Chapter 11 bankruptcy debtor for mining violations during the operation of a coal strip-mine by the debtor in possession or the trustee must be given administrative ex...
The court upholds regulations of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at 10 C.F.R. pt. 52 establishing procedures for issuing combined construction and conditional operating permits and postconstruction procedures for nuclear reactors that limit NRC's role in determining whether plants were ...
The court rules on the liability of various defendants in a private Comprehensive Environmental, Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) action to recover costs for releases at seven underground storage tanks (USTs) on plaintiff's property. The court first holds that the site is a "facili...
The court holds that an owner of contaminated property may recover Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) response costs from the original owner and other previous owners who owned the facility when hazardous substances were leaking, but not from previous tena...
The court holds that the Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) properly considered and denied a landowner's after-the-fact permit application under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) §404 individual permit program, as opposed to the FWPCA nationwide permit program, because the applicant'...
The court rules that the Amoco Corporation must pay the French government and other parties approximately $204 million in damages for the 1978 oil spill that damaged 180 miles of the Brittany coastline in France. Four cases filed in Illinois and New York were consolidated in the Northern District of...
The court holds that environmental groups have standing to challenge the U.S. Forest Service's decision to recommend against wilderness designation for 43 of 47 roadless areas in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, but the Forest Service complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). T...