A district court dismissed claims against the manufacturer of the chemical dispersant used in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Cleanup responders and coastal residents filed suit against the manufacturer, claiming they suffered a variety of exposure-related injuries...
A California court held that the environmental impact report (EIR) San Diego prepared for its regional transport plan and accompanying sustainable communities strategy violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it failed to adequately address greenhouse gas emissions. The EIR i...
The Tenth Circuit upheld a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredge and fill permit allowing a railroad company to build a terminal on land outside Kansas City, Kansas, that contains streams and wetlands. Environmental groups argued the Corps inadequately considered alternatives to the selected site unde...
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...
A California appellate court upheld a regional water board's approval of a NPDES permit to build a desalination facility on the coast of Carlsbad, California. An environmental group argued that the board improperly required the facility to restore wetlands in lieu of implementing site, design and te...
The U.S. Supreme Court held that government-induced flooding that is temporary in duration may constitute a takings and is not automatically exempt from Takings Clause inspection. The case arose after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers extended flooding from a dam into the Dave Donaldson Black River W...
A district court granted an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the logging of 11 timber sales and to halt any further logging activities in known occupied marbled murrelet sites in Oregon's Tillamook, Clatsop, and Elliot state forests. Defendants argued that the case was moot becau...
A Minnesota appellate court held that the state environmental agency did not err in certifying under CWA §401 EPA's proposed NPDES vessel general permit, which allows shipping vessels in Lake Superior to discharge ballast water in state waters. Nonprofit groups argued that the agency applied an inc...
A district court held that an insurance company need not indemnify its insured for certain repair and replacement costs it incurred cleaning up the release of contaminants from an underground gasoline storage tank. A clear reading of the plain language of the policy indicates the company was not req...