Plaintiffs appeal a trial court decision that an 11-mile portion of the Russian River is non-navigable, and that they therefore do not have a right to free and unobstructed boating and recreational activities on the waterway. The lower court found that in its natural state, prior to installation of ...

Under the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, the Army Corps of Engineers' regulatory jurisdiction over filling in navigable waters on the Pacific Coast extends to the mean higher high water line (MHHW), which is defined as the average limit of the higher of the two daily high tides over a period of 18....

Plaintiffs sue to compel the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to list lead as a "criteria air pollutant" under §108(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970. Such listing would trigger issuance of air quality criteria and a national ambient air quality standard for lead und...

The Ninth Circuit remands this challenge to a Forest Service timber sale, in which a motion for a new trial is currently pending, to the federal district court in Alaska for the purpose of considering plaintiffs' more recent motion for rehearing or, in the alternative, summary reversal. The latter m...

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals leaves in force EPA's 1983 effluent limitations guidelines for the leather tanning and finishing industry, but remands for reconsideration the 1977 limitations and the new source standards of performance. EPA's determination to base the 1977 limitations on a trans...

Regulations establishing effluent limitations guidelines for existing sources and standards of performance for new sources in the plastics and synthetics industry are remanded to EPA for reconsideration. The court reiterates its holdings in the companion case of DuPont v. Train, 6 ELR 20371, that th...

Holding that NEPA overrides the federal anti-injunction statute, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses and remands a lower court's denial of a preliminary injunction against state court condemnation proceedings related to the construction of a federally funded high voltage transmission line. ...

The court dismisses a takings and due process challenge to five-year sewer moratoria, but hold that requiring landowners to request exemption from a front foot assessment only at the time of the original assessment (prior to imposition of the moratoria) violates due process. Jurisdiction of the cour...

On motions to hold the EPA Administrator in contempt for failure to comply with the court's previous order in this case, 4 ELR 20204, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms EPA's use of a tall stack "credit" for dispersion effects in approving the Georgia implementation plan. The court reiterate...

The double jeopardy clause does not bar criminal prosecution under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (FWPCA) of a defendant who was earlier assessed a civil penalty under the FWPCA for an oil spill. It is within Congress' power to impose both civil and criminal sanctions for the same a...