A district court vacated EPA's 2019 determination that found no jurisdictional waters under the CWA at a salt production complex bordering the southwestern San Francisco Bay. The Agency argued that the CWA did not apply to the complex because it was converted to salt ponds prior to the Act's passage...

A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) rate change for customers in its seven-state service area. Environmental groups argued that TVA violated NEPA by enacting the rate change based on a deficient EA, by failing to consider the enviro...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling in a lawsuit concerning the U.S. government's and California's recovery of cleanup costs from a hazardous waste spill in the Sierra Nevada foothills that released toxic amounts of arsenic into local groundwater. Plaintiffs sued the company that had acq...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed, 2-1, a ruling in a lawsuit concerning the Trump Administration's use of military construction funds to build portions of a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. States and an environmental group challenged the Administration's authority to divert funds appropriated fo...

The D.C. Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court's dismissal of a conservation group's suit to block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from constructing a border wall near the National Butterfly Center in southern Texas. The group argued that the Department's presence on ...

The Illinois Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit concerning the city of Chicago's replacement of water meters and water main pipes as well as the partial replacement of lead service lines that run between water mains and residences throughout the city. City residents brought a negligence claim against...

A district court granted in part and denied in part an oil company's motion to dismiss a climate change adaptation lawsuit brought against it. An environmental group brought a citizen enforcement action under the CWA and RCRA, challenging the company's failure to adapt one of its storage terminals t...

A district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a lawsuit concerning an advisory committee on hunting chartered by DOI under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Nonprofit groups argued that the Department failed to properly charter the committee, failed to balance its membership t...

A district court held that William Perry Pendley was unlawfully serving as the acting director of BLM. The governor of Montana and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation argued that Pendley was unlawfully serving as the acting director in violation of the Appointments Clause, t...

A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to a 2018 FWS memorandum that withdrew a 2014 memorandum stating the Service's intent to phase out most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides and genetically modified crops (GMCs) within the National Wildlife Refuge System. Environmental groups ...