The Ninth Circuit upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision allowing a hydroelectric plant that operates at the Snoqualmie Falls to lower dam waters in the channel above the falls in order to mitigate upstream flooding problems while it undergoes plant upgrades and modifications. The ope...
The Fourth Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer violated NEPA when it issued a CWA §404 permit allowing a developer to build a mooring facility and boat ramp 3,000 feet from the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Corps' EA, issued contemporaneously w...
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned an $18 million fine imposed against a pipeline operator for storing liquid mercury at one of its facilities without a permit in violation of RCRA. In Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, the Court held that the Sixth Amendment's jury-trial guarantee requires th...