The court finds that a U.S. Forest Service letter enforcing a decision to close certain areas of Lolo National Forest to motorized use did not constitute final agency action subject to review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Forest Management Act. The Forest Servic...

The court holds that a district court erroneously dismissed an indictment charging an individual for knowingly disposing of domestic septage on a public contact site in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The individual allegedly pumped sewage material from a septic tank located at a bar and the...

The court holds that the equitable doctrine of laches bars a community group's Administrative Procedure Act and Clean Water Act (CWA) claims seeking to prevent the permitted filling of a wetland and, hence, to stop further development of a neighboring industrial park. After their attempt to stop the...

The court holds that summary judgment was improvidently granted in favor of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a suit brought by property owners who claimed that the Corps' refusal to grant the owners a Clean Water Act (CWA) §404 dredge and fill permit for 50 acres of submerged lands constituted a...

The court holds that the U.S. Postal Service did not violate either the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) or the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it proposed an experimental program that delivers nonpriority mail by surface hovercraft instead of fixed-wing aircraft to eight remote Alas...

The court holds that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers properly granted a riverboat casino operator a Clean Water Act (CWA) and Rivers and Harbors Appropriations Act permit to construct and operate a riverboat gambling facility on the Ohio River in Indiana. The court first holds that the Corps proper...

The court holds that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or act arbitrarily or capriciously in granting a developer a permit to fill wetlands abutting Lake Ponchatrain in Louisiana without first preparing an environmental impact statement (EI...

The court holds that a district court erroneously denied an environmental group's motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the U.S. Forest Service from proceeding with certain timber sales in the Payette National Forest in Idaho. In separate litigation, a district court held that a Forest Serv...

The court holds that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it issued a permit to a developer that planned to fill wetlands for a mixed use development project in Los Angeles County, California, and, therefore, vacated a district court's in...

The Ninth Circuit held that the BLM violated NEPA when it approved a mining company's amendment to a plan of operations for an existing mineral exploration project in Nevada. The BLM took a hard look at the direct impacts of the amendment and its discussion of reasonable alternatives was proper, but...