The Seventh Circuit upheld a dredge and fill permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a highway project that crosses wetlands in Indiana. The Corps adequately considered practicable alternatives when it issued the permit. Although the Corps has an independent responsibility to enforce t...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court decision dismissing a conservation group's CWA citizen suit alleging that a scrap metal company violated California's general NPDES permit for industrial stormwater at three of its scrap recycling facilities. The lower court dismissed the case, holding that C...

A district court held that a settlement agreement bars a mining corporation from seeking contribution from a railroad company under CERCLA for environmental liability related to the Omaha Lead Superfund site in Omaha, Nebraska. Both parties owned the site at different times between 1871 and 1997. It...

The Fourth Circuit held that the discovery rule set forth in CERCLA §309 preempts North Carolina's 10-year limitation on the accrual of real property claims. The case arose after landowners filed a nuisance action against a corporation for allegedly contaminating their well water with concentrated ...

The Sixth Circuit vacated a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule exempting from the Clean Water Act's (CWA's) national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permitting requirements pesticides applied in accordance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The ...

A district court held, in an unpublished opinion, that a company that sold its facility, including equipment that contained asbestos dust and waste, may not be held liable as an owner or operator or as an arranger under CERCLA. Nearly 20 years after the company sold the site, the new owner abandoned...