A district court upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' and FWS' management plan, EIS, and associated permits authorizing the “take,” or killing, of double-crested cormorants in the Columbia River estuary, even though the agencies failed to consider reasonable alternatives other than killing i...

A district court held that BLM failed to take a "hard look" at the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing with regard to the agency's resource management plan (RMP) for public lands in California's central region. Under the resource management plan, 25% of new wells are expected to use hydraul...

The Supreme Court of California held that the state's moratorium on the use of suction dredges to mine gold from rivers was not preempted by federal mining law. The case arose after an individual challenged his conviction for the possession and unpermitted use of a suction dredge. He argued that the...

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court decision upholding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 2012 decision to issue a general nationwide permit—NWP 21—authorizing discharges from certain coal mining activities into navigable waters. The 2012 version of NWP 21 contains two new provisions, a g...