Duke Energy Progress, Inc. v. Alcan Aluminum Corp.
A district court denied an electric company's motion for reconsideration of a previous ruling that genuine issues of material fact preclude a finding of summary judgment in a contribution case concerning the Ward Transformer Superfund site. The court had issued two orders concerning the site—one i...
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Inc. v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The Fourth Circuit upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to issue a CWA §404 fill permit to a surface mine in West Virginia. Environmental groups challenged the permit on two grounds. First, they argued that the Corps made "a material factual error" and "misapprehended" the baseline con...
Alaska Community Action v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
A district court dismissed as time barred environmental groups' CWA and APA claims challenging EPA's list of dispersants and other projects that may be used in the event of an oil spill. The groups asserted that the list, called the NCP Product Schedule, fails to specify the waters or quantities in ...
United States v. Southern Union Co.
A district court held that community service having a value no more than $500,000 would be an appropriate sentence for a pipeline operator that stored liquid mercury at one of its facilities without a permit. Below, a trial court imposed an $18 million fine against the company, but the sentence was ...
Alt v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
A district court denied EPA's motion to dismiss a poultry farmer's lawsuit against the Agency seeking a declaratory judgment that farmyard stormwater runoff is statutorily exempt from regulation as an agricultural stormwater discharge. In 2011, EPA issued a compliance order to the farmer requiring h...
Defenders of Wildlife v. Perciasepe
The D.C. Circuit upheld a consent decree that established a schedule for EPA to initiate notice-and-comment rulemaking and make a formal decision whether to promulgate a new rule revising certain effluent limitations and effluent limitations guidelines under the CWA. Below, an association of energy ...
Kentucky Riverkeeper, Inc. v. Rowlette
The Sixth Circuit struck down the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reissuance of nationwide permit 21, which authorizes surface coal mining operations to discharge dredged and fill material into waters of the United States. An environmental group challenged the permit, alleging that the cumulative-impa...