The Seventh Circuit reversed a lower court decision finding a Wisconsin mine operator liable under the CWA for discharging copper into navigable waters without a permit. The CWA's permit shield provision provides that if a NPDES permit holder discharges pollutants in accordance with the terms of its...

The Third Circuit held that a PRP that entered into a consent decree resolving its state-law liability with the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in connection with contamination at an industrial facility may seek contribution under CERCLA from a second PRP. The court held that CERCLA §113(f)(3)(B) does...

The Second Circuit upheld a lower court's permanent injunction barring the state of Vermont from bringing an enforcement action, or taking other action, to compel the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to shut down after its license expires on March 21, 2012, if it fails to obtain legislative approv...

The D.C. Circuit ordered NRC to resume processing of DOE's pending license application to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires NRC to issue a final decision approving or disapproving the application within three years of its submission. DOE submitted its appli...

The Third Circuit, in a case involving a contaminated site in New Jersey, affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision finding the former owner of the site liable to the current owner under CERCLA but not RCRA. The lower court ruled that the current owner's claim for injunctive relie...

A district court held that a cartage company that leased a parcel of land in the 1960s may be held liable for response costs the property owner incurred at the site under CERCLA as an operator, transporter, or arranger, but not as an owner. In its motion for partial summary judgment as to the compan...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision vacating the Nevada state engineer's approval of the state wildlife agency's application to transfer water rights from agricultural land in the Newlands Reclamation Project to the Carson Lake and Pasture, a wetlands-containing wildlife refuge, in ord...

A California court held that the California Department of Public Health must adopt a final primary drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium. The state legislature commanded the department to adopt a standard by January 1, 2004; the department is therefore in ongoing violation of its ministeri...

A Texas appellate court held that an insurance company has a duty to defend its insured in underlying lawsuits stemming from a sinkhole formed by the insured's waste disposal well operations. The insurance company argued that it had no duty to defend because the insurance policy contains a pollution...

A California appellate court held that a newly enacted state law that prohibits counties from restricting or limiting the importation of solid waste into a privately owned facility in the county based on the waste's place of origin preempts a voter-approved 1984 initiative measure that severely rest...