A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service violated its travel management rule, but not NEPA, when it issued its record of decision approving the Stanislaus National Forest Motorized Travel Management EIS. The agency looked at a reasonable range of alternatives to the proposed action, proper...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the U.S. Forest Service's adoption of the Idaho Roadless Rule, which creates different categories of land within Idaho's 9.3 million acres of inventoried roadless areas. The court affirmed and adopted as its own a lower court ruling that also approved the rule. FWS's biologi...

A district court held that a mining company that operates a smelter in Canada is liable as an arranger under CERCLA for the release and threatened release of hazardous substances in the Upper Columbia River. The company stipulated that it discharged slag and effluent into the Columbia River from its...

A district court held that a refinery that settled in bankruptcy court its liability for response costs incurred at a Superfund site may seek contribution from a mining company. The mining company argued that the settlement agreement for which the refinery seeks contribution only resolves the refine...

The California Supreme Court held that all subdivisions, including the conversion of a mobile home park from tenant occupancy to resident ownership, are "developments" for purposes of the California Coastal Act. Nor does the Subdivision Map Act exempt such conversions from the need to comply with ot...