A district court upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to issue a general nationwide permit—NWP 21—authorizing discharges from certain coal mining activities into navigable waters. Despite environmental groups' arguments to the contrary, the Corps' issuance of NWP 21 was neither arbi...
A district court denied motions to dismiss environmental groups' CWA citizen suit against an energy company for alleged NPDES permit violations at a retired coal-fired power plant. The groups alleged that the company unlawfully discharged pollutants through engineered seeps, non-engineered seeps, an...
A district court granted a motion to reconsider its prior decision that a PRP established the divisibility defense and, therefore, should not be jointly and severally liable for cleanup costs at the Lower Fox River Superfund site in Wisconsin, and held that the PRP had not, in fact, established the ...
A district court, on motions for summary judgment, held that a marine fueling, service, and storage facility in Seattle was liable under the CWA for various NPDES general permit violations. The company's stormwater discharges exceeded the benchmarks for zinc and copper, the company failed to monitor...
The Second Circuit remanded portions of EPA's 2013 general NPDES permit for ship ballast water, a primary cause of the spread of invasive species from one body of water to another. The general permit imposed both technology-based effluent limitations (TBELs) and water quality-based effluent limitati...
The Sixth Circuit issued a nationwide stay enjoining the "waters of the United States" rule pending the court's determination as to whether it has subject matter jurisdiction to review the rule. The court held that the petitioning states demonstrated a substantial possibility of success on the merit...
A New York appellate court held that residents may go forward with their personal injury and property damage claims against a city and various companies for failing to properly remediate toxic contamination at the Love Canal Superfund site and for allowing toxins to be released during a 2011 sewer p...