A district court denied a manufacturing company's motion to certify for interlocutory appeal certain questions pertaining to its statute of limitations and claim preclusion defenses in an underlying case over who should bear the cost of cleaning up contamination at a steel processing site. The curre...

A district court granted Missouri's remand request to litigate in state court its lawsuit against the owner and operator of a landfill in connection with an uncontrolled, underground trash fire at the site. The state alleged various state law violations, along with claims for nuisance, cost recovery...

A district court held it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over a class action lawsuit that stems from the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan. The plaintiffs alleged that the city violated their constitutional rights and state law by providing contaminated water and requiring them to pay ...

The Supreme Court of Montana upheld a lower court decision dismissing a smelting company's state-law claims against an oil refinery in connection with costs incurred remediating a former lead smelting site in East Helena, Montana. The refinery sold the site to the smelting company in 1972. Under the...

A Montana court vacated and remanded a water discharge permit that the state's environmental agency issued to a coal mine in southeastern Montana. The agency's decisions are arbitrary and not supported by the law, and when viewed in its totality, the record demonstrates clear errors of judgment with...

A district court held that conservation groups lacked standing to challenge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to reissue a nationwide permit (NWP 13) authorizing the discharge of dredged and fill material to construct bank stabilization projects. The groups alleged that the Corps reissued...

An Illinois appellate court held that the Illinois Pollution Control Board erred when it upheld the state environmental agency's decision to reissue NPDES permits for three large water reclamation plants in the Chicago area. Petitioners argued that the permits fail to include conditions ensuring tha...

The Sixth Circuit held that it has jurisdiction to hear numerous lawsuits challenging EPA's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule. The rule went into effect on August 28, 2015, but on October 9, 2015, the court issued a nationwide stay of the rule pending f...

West Virginia's highest court held that individuals' lawsuit against a power company for injuries they allegedly incurred due to their exposure to coal combustion waste may go forward in the West Virginia courts even though the vast majority of plaintiffs live outside the state. Of the 77 named plai...

A district court held that environmental groups lacked standing to challenge EPA's decision not to object to a draft water discharge permit that Arkansas' environmental agency issued to a pulp and paper company under the state's CWA NPDES permit program. The groups sought an order declaring that the...