A California court held that federal mining law preempts a state law that effectively bans the use of any vacuum or suction dredge mining in streams and rivers on federal lands. Under Cal. Fish & Game Code §5653, the use of any vacuum or suction dredge equipment by any person in any river strea...

A Washington appellate court upheld a state agency's decision to issue a hydraulic mining permit to an individual on the condition that he limit his suction dredging operations within a specified two-week work period. The individual engages in "placer" mining—searching for gold that has moved away...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's denial of a petition filed by 101 environmental groups asking the Agency to regulate spent lead bullets and shot under TSCA. EPA rejected the petition as “non-cognizable” under TSCA §21 on the grounds that it largely duplicated an earlier petition that two of the 1...

The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld an administrative law judge's (ALJ's) award of benefits in the death of an oil-tank worker. According to the medical examiner's report, the worker died from hydrocarbon poisoning due to the inhalation of petroleum vapors from oil storage tanks. His employer argu...

A California appellate court upheld a lower court decision denying an environmental group's petition challenging a county's approval of a proposed surface mining operation on a 1,500-acre site at the base of the Sierra Nevada foothills. As required by the California Environmental Quality Act, an env...

A district court, in a 120-page decision, dismissed claims that the U.S. Navy negligently exposed a child to thallium dust during its cleanup of a contaminated landfill site. The child's family, which lived next to the site, alleged that wind-blown dust migrated to their yard and home and caused her...