New York's highest court held that material questions of fact prevent it from ruling on whether a narrow waterway within a remote area of the Adirondack Mountains is navigable-in-fact and therefore open to public use. At issue in the case is the "Mud Pond Waterway," a two-mile-long system of ponds a...

A district court held that an insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify a company in two underlying actions seeking contribution for past and future costs incurred at a PCB-contaminated site. The company had sent transformers to the site for repair, during which PCBs were released. The company was ...

A Montana court vacated and remanded a water discharge permit that the state's environmental agency issued to a coal mine in southeastern Montana. The agency's decisions are arbitrary and not supported by the law, and when viewed in its totality, the record demonstrates clear errors of judgment with...

A district court held that conservation groups lacked standing to challenge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to reissue a nationwide permit (NWP 13) authorizing the discharge of dredged and fill material to construct bank stabilization projects. The groups alleged that the Corps reissued...

A district court granted an oil company's motion to dismiss claims filed against it for economic losses stemming from the government's moratorium on offshore drilling in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The oil company is a responsible party under OPA, and the plaintiffs—oilfield s...