A district court ordered EPA to conduct a necessity determination under CWA §303(c)(4)(B) in response to an environmental group's petition asking the Agency to establish water quality standards to control nitrogen and phosphorous pollution in the mainstem of the Mississippi River and the Northern G...
A district court upheld EPA's final TMDL for the Chesapeake Bay against challenges from farmer and home building groups. The TMDL—the largest ever developed by EPA—identifies the necessary pollution reductions of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment across Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvani...
The Ninth Circuit held that the California Air Resource Board (CARB) low carbon fuel standard's regulation of ethanol does not facially discriminate against out-of-state commerce. CARB treats all ethanol within each regional category the same, and its decision to draw one of the regional categories ...
A district court held that a coal company discharged excessive amounts of selenium into the waters of West Virginia in violation of the CWA and SMCRA. The environmental group that filed suit against the company has standing, and it satisfied the statutes' 60-day notice requirements for citizen suits...
A D.C. court denied a conservative publication's motion for reconsideration of the court's earlier decision denying the publication's motion to dismiss a climate scientist defamation suit against it. There is sufficient evidence in the record to demonstrate that the scientist is likely to succeed on...
A California court issued a tentative decision upholding the California Air Resource Board's (CARB's) authority to sell greenhouse gas allowances at auction under the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, also known as Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32). The court tentatively agreed that the auctio...
The Seventh Circuit reversed a lower court decision finding a Wisconsin mine operator liable under the CWA for discharging copper into navigable waters without a permit. The CWA's permit shield provision provides that if a NPDES permit holder discharges pollutants in accordance with the terms of its...
A district court dismissed a landowner's lawsuit challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' jurisdictional determination for property that contains peat. The Corps issued its jurisdictional determination after the landowner sought permission to mine peat from the property for use in the construct...
A district court dismissed a homebuilder association's lawsuit against EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers challenging their determination that portions of the Santa Cruz River are traditional navigable waters (TNW) under the CWA. The association lacks standing because it failed to allege a spe...