California Clean Energy Committee v. City of San Jose
A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision dismissing a clean energy group's petition challenging a city's certification and approval of an environmental impact report (EIR) prepared for a proposed update to the city's general plan. The group argued that the approved final EIR fell...
Alt v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
A district court held that litter and manure washed from a farmyard into navigable waters due to a precipitation event is an agricultural stormwater discharge and not a point source discharge, rendering it exempt from the CWA's NPDES permit requirement. The case involves a poultry farmer who operate...
State Department of Finance v. Commission on State Mandates
A California appellate court held that California's Commission on State Mandates erred in ruling that certain requirements set forth in a municipal stormwater sewer permit for Los Angeles County constituted unfunded state mandates subject to reimbursement under the state constitution. Although the p...
Nez Perce Tribe v. United States Forest Service
A district court issued an injunction ordering the U.S. Forest Service to prohibit industrial equipment—known as "mega-loads"—headed for the Alberta Sands from being transported along a highway that runs through the Nez Perce Reservation and the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest until certain...
Midwest Environmental Defense Center, Inc. v. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
A Wisconsin court held that the state environmental agency should have considered impacts on downstream water quality when it issued a state pollutant discharge elimination system permit to an industrial dairy processing plant. An environmental group challenged the permit, arguing that it would allo...
Sierra Club v. Moser
The Supreme Court of Kansas reversed and remanded the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's decision to issue a prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) permit to a power company to construct an 895-megawatt coal-fired power plant. An environmental group filed suit against the state age...