The Supreme Court vacates a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals opinion, 9 ELR 20347, upholding in part a district court decision ordering the city of Milwaukee to abate discharges of treated and untreated sewage effluent into Lake Michigan. Justice Rehnquist notes at the outset that the federal courts...

Granting defendants' motion for reconsideration of its judgment awarding $59,000 in attorney fees to plaintiffs, 11 ELR 20293, the court increases the amount awarded to $231,000. The test of the appropriateness of an award of fees is whether the underlying suit was a prudent and desirable effort to ...

The court upholds the constitutionality of provisions of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act (FCMA) permitting searches of vessels without a warrant and the assessment of penalties. A Japanese fishing vessel, holding a fishing permit issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrat...

The court rules that the construction of a refugee camp for Cuban and Haitian refugees at Fort Allen, Puerto Rico, violates §6001(2) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), §§101(b) and 102(2)(E) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), §307 of the Coastal Zone Management A...

The court modifies and affirms the imposition of an automatic civil penalty upon the owner of an oil pipeline from which oil was discharged into navigable waters due to the act of a third party. Section 311(b)(6) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, unlike other provisions of the Act relating...

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a district court and rules that Army Corps of Engineers permits issued pursuant to §10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act require strict compliance. The district court held that although appellee dredged a channel to a greater depth than specifically allowed b...

Affirming the lower court's decision, 9 ELR 20426, the court agrees that Hawaii's game management practice of allowing feral goats and sheep in the critical habitat of the endangered Palila bird constituted an unlawful "taking" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The feral animals destroy the Pa...

The court upholds the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) denial of an ocean-dumping permit under the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act. Pursuant to the Act, EPA established several environmental impact criteria to be used in reviewing permit applications. Even if those criteria...

The court rules that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency illegally refused to entertain appellant's request for a hearing at which to demonstrate its entitlement to variances from Ohio air pollution control requirements. Although under OHIO REV. CODE ANN. §3704.03(H) the Agency is empowered to...

In a lengthy opinion, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejects a series of procedural and substantive challenges to the new source performance standards (NSPS) for coal-fired power plants adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pursuant to §112 of the Clean Air Act. The standards requ...