The Connecticut Supreme Court upholds municipal regulations restricting activities that affect wetlands, including operations and uses occurring outside the physical boundaries of wetlands and watercourses. Defendant, a municipal wetlands agency for the town of Redding, enacted regulations pursuant ...

The court rules that due to enactment of the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) no longer needs to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) with respect to Phase 2 of its Hydro-Thermal Power Program (HTPP). The court had p...

The court affirms a district court determination that a boiler installed by the appellant municipal uility is a "new source" under §111(a)(2) of the Clean Air Act and therefore is subject to new source performance standards (NSPS) promulgated under the Act. The utility executed a purchase contract ...

The court upholds the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) decision to grant a conditional "prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) of air quality" permit for two coal-fired power plants issued pursuant to the Clean Air Act. Plaintiffs argued that the power plants will not use the best av...

The court rules that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) complied with the National Environmental Policy Act in preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a docking facility construction project and that it complied with the "federal consistency" provisions of the C...

The court rules that the federal government may enforce the terms of a national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit while a state action is pending to enforce the same permit, but the court issues a conditional stay of the federal action due to exceptional circumstances. The Delawa...

The court rules that under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) the United States may seek recovery of oil spill cleanup costs outside of a shipowner's action for exoneration from or limitation of liability under the Limited Liability Act. Because the Limitation Act limits liability for d...

In an action in which the United States seeks to recover the expenses of cleaning up an oil spill under §311 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the court rules that the owner of a dolphin which contributed to the spill may be liable to the government under general maritime law. Although th...

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses in part and affirms in part a district court ruling that steel production is comprised of three separate and independent processes under state law and emissions from appellee's steel-making facility did not violate applicable emission limitations. However,...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that a suit to enjoin the Secretary of the Interior from implementing a livestock reduction program on reservation lands until an environmental impact statement was filed is moot where Congress subsequently declared that actions taken pursuant to the program ...