A district court held that litter and manure washed from a farmyard into navigable waters due to a precipitation event is an agricultural stormwater discharge and not a point source discharge, rendering it exempt from the CWA's NPDES permit requirement. The case involves a poultry farmer who operate...
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing environmental groups' claim that the U.S. Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated NEPA, the ESA, and the APA in deciding to install and operate an undersea warfare training range in waters adjacent to the only kno...
A Wisconsin court held that the state environmental agency should have considered impacts on downstream water quality when it issued a state pollutant discharge elimination system permit to an industrial dairy processing plant. An environmental group challenged the permit, arguing that it would allo...
The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed a lower court decision denying an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the construction of a railroad extension in Alaska. The group was not likely to succeed on its claim that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers erred in issuing a ...
The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the construction of an oil pipeline to run from Cushing, Oklahoma, to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast near Port Arthur, Texas. The group argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ...
The Third Circuit affirmed a lower court decision vacating a 2009 settlement agreement between the U.S. Forest Service and environmental groups that banned oil and gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest pending the completion of a multi-year, forestwide EIS under NEPA. The lower court had pre...
A district court ordered EPA to conduct a necessity determination under CWA §303(c)(4)(B) in response to an environmental group's petition asking the Agency to establish water quality standards to control nitrogen and phosphorous pollution in the mainstem of the Mississippi River and the Northern G...
A district court held that BLM complied with NEPA and FLPMA when it authorized a uranium mining project in south central Wyoming. BLM, in conjunction with other state and federal agencies, undertook extensive and exhaustive reviews of the potential environmental impacts of the project, and the agenc...