A California appellate court held that the California Coastal Commission exceeded its jurisdiction when it approved amendments to a city's certified local coastal program at the request of state agencies and over the objection of the city. The proposed amendments would override the city's local land...

A district court held that residents may add four new defendants in their lawsuit against energy companies for alleged water contamination due to hydraulic fracturing operations near their homes. During the course of discovery, the residents learned that the proposed defendants participated in t...

A Washington appellate court held that the developer of 30 residential waterfront lots must seek a permit under the Shoreline Management Act of 1971 prior to building private docks to accompany the new homes. Because the docks would be designed for the private, noncommercial use of the owners of...

The Indiana Supreme Court held that an insurance company must provide coverage to a manufacturer for TCE contamination even though the policy contained an absolute pollution exclusion clause. The pollution exclusion clause excluded coverage for losses resulting from "pollutants," which the polic...

A district court ordered the California Department of Transportation to revise its EA for a proposal to widen a highway through a state park home to ancient redwoods as well as an abundance of wildlife, including the marbled murrelet and spotted owl. There are a number of discrepancies and omiss...

A district court remanded to EPA its determination that several provisions of Florida's "impaired water rule" are not new or revised water quality standards and, thus, not subject to approval by the Agency. An environmental group argued that EPA's decision was arbitrary and capricious. In order ...

A district court held that a local sanitation department that owns and operates a complex sanitary sewer conveyance system and 13 wastewater treatment plants must pay penalties for the unintended discharge of sewage following heavy rainfall in the spring of 2010. The department previously entere...

A California appellate court held that a local board's environmental impact report (EIR) for the construction of a light rail line connecting downtown Los Angeles with Santa Monica complies with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A coalition of homeowners' associations, community g...

The Eleventh Circuit upheld a restaurant manager's conviction for conspiring to illegally dump restaurant grease into U.S. waters in violation of the CWA. The evidence was easily sufficient to sustain a finding that he conspired to intentionally violate the CWA. He was the supervisor of four res...

The Fifth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing an environmental group's CWA action against a city for violations at its wastewater treatment plants. The lower court erred in ruling that a 2002 consent decree between the city and the U.S. government requiring the city t...