The North Carolina Supreme Court held an injured person may not bring a civil action against a defendant under the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973 (SPCA) when the defendant has received notices of noncompliance but has not been cited for a violation of a relevant law, rule, order, or ero...
The Fifth Circuit held that the CAA does not preempt a local ordinance that allows taxicabs certified to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) to cut ahead of gasoline-powered taxis in the queue for picking up passengers at Love Field Airport in Dallas. The ordinance does not create an enforceable sta...
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down portions of the Los Angeles port's "Clean Truck Program," which was designed in part to reduce emissions related to port operations, including emissions from trucks. The concession agreements implementing the plan set forth a number of provisions covering, among ot...
A district court dismissed an environmental group's APA lawsuit against EPA challenging 40 C.F.R. §124.55(b), which pertains to state certification of discharge permits issued by the Agency under the CWA. Specifically, the group challenged the portion of §124.55(b) that prohibits EPA from modifyin...
A California court ordered a city to set aside its approval of a development project until it complies with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The environmental impact report for the project failed to summarize documents incorporated by reference in violation of CEQA guidelines. This f...
The Fourth Circuit upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to issue a CWA §404 fill permit to a surface mine in West Virginia. Environmental groups challenged the permit on two grounds. First, they argued that the Corps made "a material factual error" and "misapprehended" the baseline con...
A district court dismissed as time barred environmental groups' CWA and APA claims challenging EPA's list of dispersants and other projects that may be used in the event of an oil spill. The groups asserted that the list, called the NCP Product Schedule, fails to specify the waters or quantities in ...
A district court dismissed a city's lawsuit against California state and local air districts challenging fees it must pay to mitigate wind-blown dust from a dry lake bed that exceed state and federal air standards. Section 42316 of the California Health and Safety Code authorized the district to ord...
A district court denied EPA's motion to dismiss a poultry farmer's lawsuit against the Agency seeking a declaratory judgment that farmyard stormwater runoff is statutorily exempt from regulation as an agricultural stormwater discharge. In 2011, EPA issued a compliance order to the farmer requiring h...
The D.C. Circuit upheld a consent decree that established a schedule for EPA to initiate notice-and-comment rulemaking and make a formal decision whether to promulgate a new rule revising certain effluent limitations and effluent limitations guidelines under the CWA. Below, an association of energy ...