The Ninth Circuit affirms a lower court's dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction of a challenge to the California Water Quality Control Board's denial of a variance and issuance of a discharge permit under §402(b) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The assertion that the state a...

The Ninth Circuit affirms a lower court's judgment that a Bureau of Reclamation order requiring the removal of certain privately owned docks and houseboats from a federally created and owned lake did not constitute a taking of property without just compensation. The docks and houseboats have been al...

The court grants plaintiff's motion for summary judgment in a suit challenging the issuance by the Corps of Engineers of a permit to construct a diked facility for impounding dredge spoil within the Chesapeake Bay. In light of stipulations between the partners that the Chesapeake Bay is a navigable,...

The Ninth Circuit affirms a lower court's grant of summary judgment for defendants in a suit seeking to enjoin construction of offshore installations to receive and store oil and gas extracted from the outer continental shelf (OCS) until a license has been issued under the Deepwater Port Act. The co...

The court issues a preliminary injunction prohibiting the California Department of Transportation from conditioning a municipal airport's retention of a variance from applicable noise standards upon its adoption of an extended curfew on commercial operations. After finding that plaintiff and interve...

Granting in part and denying in part plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, the court rules that the Secretary of the Interior has no discretion under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 to deny preference right lease applications from prospectors who demonstrate the presence of commercial quantities ...

After a hearing at which both parties presented expert testimony concerning whether fluoridation of water presents a risk of cancer to the populace, the court determines that a sufficient risk exists to enjoin preliminarily further addition of fluorides to the municipal water supply under defendants...

The court affirms two Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decisions authorizing the construction of a nuclear power plant at Hutchinson Island, Florida. Petitioners are mistaken in their contention that the island itself constitutes a "population center" within the meaning of NRC's regulations becau...

Motion to dismiss three counts of complaint by nearby landowners seeking equitable relief and monetary damages from construction and operation of municipal sewage treatment plant is denied in part and granted in part. Inverse condemnation, which forms the basis of the fourth cause of action asserted...

The court upholds the constitutionality of the Coastal Area Management Act of 1974 against several challenges, and dismisses other challenges for lack of standing. Starting with the presumption of the consitutionality of legislative acts, the court first considers plaintiffs' claim that the Act is a...