The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, held that environmental groups have standing to bring a RCRA citizen suit against the U.S. Forest Service for failing to regulate the disposal of spent lead ammunition in the Kaibab National Forest. The groups allege that the Forest Service's failure to ...

The Sixth Circuit dismissed individuals' CWA citizen suit against the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) for issuing NPDES permits for animal feeding operations without first obtaining approval from EPA. States must notify EPA if they intend to transfer authority over part of the EPA-approved stat...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin a forest fire recovery project in the southern Oregon Klamath Mountains. After a fire destroyed approximately 48,000 acres of forest in Oregon, BLM initiated the project to salvage remainin...

The Eleventh Circuit denied environmental groups' lawsuit challenging EPA's interim decision not to revoke Alabama's NPDES permitting authority. Alleging 26 program deficiencies, the groups petitioned EPA to begin proceedings to withdraw Alabama's authority to administer the NPDES program. EPA issue...

A district court denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin BLM and the U.S. Forest Service from implementing certain amendments to their resource management plans that were made to better protect the greater sage-grouse and its habitat. The amended resource management plans govern 67 million acres of ...

A district court granted in part and denied in part cross-motions for summary judgment in a CWA citizen suit alleging a cruise ship terminal and port discharged industrial stormwater runoff and other pollutants into U.S. waters without a NPDES permit. The environmental group that initiated the lawsu...

A district court held a petroleum company liable for $159.5 million in civil penalties under the CWA in connection with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The court applied each of the CWA’s eight civil penalty factors in reaching its conclusion, with "seriousness" and "culpability" being the mo...

In an unpublished opinion, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing landowners' claims that a city violated the CWA and state law by failing to perform maintenance and repairs on a stream, pond, and dam located partially on their property. The city is a small municipal separat...

A district court held that an environmental group may go forward with its CWA and NEPA lawsuit against a water district, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the owner of the largest federal mitigation bank in the United States over claims that the defendants have taken actions to use and develop t...

A district court dismissed a mitigation bank owner's APA claims against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for requiring a CWA §404 permittee to purchase "invalid" banking credits from another mitigation bank in connection with a railroad project. The owner claimed that despite the fact that his miti...