The Second Circuit remanded portions of EPA's 2013 general NPDES permit for ship ballast water, a primary cause of the spread of invasive species from one body of water to another. The general permit imposed both technology-based effluent limitations (TBELs) and water quality-based effluent limitati...
The Sixth Circuit issued a nationwide stay enjoining the "waters of the United States" rule pending the court's determination as to whether it has subject matter jurisdiction to review the rule. The court held that the petitioning states demonstrated a substantial possibility of success on the merit...
A North Carolina appellate court upheld the constitutionality of state legislation that withdrew a city's authority to own and operate its public water system and to instead transfer it to a sewer district. The law creates a new type of political subdivision, known as a metropolitan water and sewera...
The Supreme Court of New Hampshire upheld a $236 million jury award against an oil company for groundwater contamination. In 2003, New Hampshire sued several gasoline suppliers, refiners, and chemical manufacturers seeking damages for groundwater contamination allegedly caused by methyl tertiary but...
A district court denied in part motions to dismiss as time barred Puerto Rico's lawsuit against various oil companies for methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) groundwater contamination. Under Puerto Rico law, once the defendant has established that the injury occurred more than one year prior to the f...
A district court upheld EPA's decision to withdraw a proposed rule that would have required concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to provide information to the Agency to help facilitate EPA's ability to regulate their discharge of pollutants into the waters of the United States under the CW...
The D.C. Circuit upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's NEPA and CWA claims against the U.S. government in connection with a 593-mile oil pipeline that runs from Illinois to Oklahoma on both public and private lands. Despite the group's claims to the contrary, the government was not requir...
A district court upheld Oregon's clean fuels program, which seeks to reduce lifecycle emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from transportation fuels by 10% over a 10-year period. Trade associations argued that the program was unconstitutional because it discriminates against out-of-state commerce. Bu...