The court holds that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) acted within the scope of its discretion in issuing a regulation that established a rebuttable presumption that loose closures on railroad tank cars transporting hazardous materials result from the shipper's failure to conduct a proper...

The Court of Federal Claims awarded $84 million to four oil companies for costs they incurred cleaning up waste stemming from the production of aviation gasoline during World War II under contracts with the U.S. government. The government argued that the oil companies are not entitled to recover all...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court order holding that a company substantially complied with a state's remediation plan for cleaning up PCB contamination at a hazardous waste site. The company's predecessor-in-interest operated an electrical transformer repair facility on the subject property,...

A district court denied New Jersey's motion to amend a 1997 consent decree concerning the Gloucester Environmental Management Services, Inc., landfill and ordered it to comply with the terms of the decree. The state alleged that the detection of the presence of radionuclides requires a new remedy fo...

A district ruled on several pre-trial motions of both defendants and plaintiffs alleging property damage caused by a defendant's contamination at its nearby chemical manufacturing facility (a designated Superfund site), negligence, fraud, fraudulent concealment, strict liability, trespass, and civil...

The court holds that a county's action to quiet title to real property used by the United States as a wildlife management area on Matagorda Island in Texas is time barred. The federal government condemned a portion of Matagorda Island for use as a bombing and gunnery range, and in 1982 the U.S. Fish...

The court holds that the Federal Highway Administration and the West Virginia Department of Transportation's decision to support the building of a new, four-lane highway as part of the Appalachian Highway Development System complied with the National Environmental Policy Act and §4(f) of the Depart...

The court upholds the U.S. Forest Service's interpretation of the term "native" and its environmental assessment (EA) for an ecological project in Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. The appellants argued that the ecological project will have an adverse effect on shortleaf pines and pine warblers i...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service failed to comply with National Forest Management Act (NFMA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements in determining whether to allow a timber sale in the Payette National Forest in Idaho. The court first holds that the Forest Service fail...

The court holds that a band of Native Americans has the right to moor commercial fishing vessels at two municipally owned marinas on Lake Michigan. The court first holds that treaties signed in 1836 and 1855 provided for an easement of access to reach traditional fishing grounds, which includes the ...