A district court dismissed a property owner's OPA claims against a nearby college for land and water contamination allegedly caused by heating oil that leaked from USTs on the college campus. The property owner brought claims under the CWA, OPA, RCRA, and state law. Based on the language and legisla...

The Eleventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of environmental groups' citizen suit against a coal mine for new source performance standard (NSPS) violations under the CWA. A citizen suit that alleges that a discharger violated its permit is subject to the general rule of notice and a 60-day waiting per...

The Sixth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, denied a wildlife preserve's motion to preliminarily enjoin a mining company from constructing and operating a nickel and copper mine in Marquette, Michigan, and to compel the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to force a federal permitting request. The mining...

The Seventh Circuit held that a town may not assess stormwater management fees on Indian lands located within the town's borders. The town passed an ordinance allowing it to assess fees on all parcels of land in the town, including those owned by the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, to pay for its stormw...

The Tenth Circuit held that landowners lacked standing to challenge two wind energy projects in Wyoming. FERC certified the projects under the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act, which seeks to promote renewable energy sources by requiring utilities to buy power from small facilities that meet...

A district court held that litter and manure washed from a farmyard into navigable waters due to a precipitation event is an agricultural stormwater discharge and not a point source discharge, rendering it exempt from the CWA's NPDES permit requirement. The case involves a poultry farmer who operate...

The Ninth Circuit held that environmental groups lacked standing to compel the Washington State Department of Ecology and other regional agencies to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the state's five oil refineries under the CAA. The groups claimed that the agencies failed to define emission li...

A Wisconsin court held that the state environmental agency should have considered impacts on downstream water quality when it issued a state pollutant discharge elimination system permit to an industrial dairy processing plant. An environmental group challenged the permit, arguing that it would allo...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the construction of an oil pipeline to run from Cushing, Oklahoma, to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast near Port Arthur, Texas. The group argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ...

The Third Circuit affirmed a lower court decision vacating a 2009 settlement agreement between the U.S. Forest Service and environmental groups that banned oil and gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest pending the completion of a multi-year, forestwide EIS under NEPA. The lower court had pre...