A California court dismissed environmental groups' lawsuit against the California Department of Conservation, Division Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) for failing to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act in issuing permits for oil and gas wells that involve hydraulic fractur...

A district court granted EPA's motion to amend a consent decree requiring it to adopt numeric criteria for Florida's waters unless the state does so first. Florida adopted new nutrient criteria, but for some waters, the criteria are not numeric. EPA then sought to modify the consent decree so that t...

The Fifth Circuit upheld the conviction and sentencing of the former owner of a wastewater treatment facility who allowed the disposal of untreated wastewater into U.S. waters without a permit. The former owner argued that the lower court erred in excluding evidence about the lack of environmental h...

A district court held that environmental groups may go forward with their CWA lawsuit against a rail carrier for allowing coal dust from open-top rail cars to be released into U.S. waterways. At issue was whether coal dust from rail cars that falls onto land, rather than directly into the waters, of...

A district court held a mining company liable under SMCRA and the CWA for discharging excessive amounts of selenium into the waters of West Virginia. The company argued that the CWA's permit shield defense protected it from liability because selenium was not a pollutant whose discharge was limited u...

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not violate the CWA or NEPA when it issued a dredge and fill permit necessary for a mineral sands mining project near Coos Bay, Oregon. An environmental group argued that the Corps should have prepared an EIS, rather than an EA and FON...

A district court held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could exercise jurisdiction under the CWA over wetlands contained in a developer's proposed residential site. The developer had initially asked the court to enter declaratory judgment that the wetlands were not subject to federal jurisdicti...

A district court dismissed environmental groups' lawsuit challenging EPA's "authorization" of pollution trading and offsets outlined in its 2010 TMDL for the Chesapeake Bay. The groups wanted statements about offsets and trading in the Bay TMDL to be declared null and void. But the groups lack stand...