The court reverses a grant of summary judgment for the government in a suit to enforce a civil penalty for discharging oil into navigable waters after finding that the spill did not have a harmful effect on the environment. Section 311(b) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972...

In a suit seeking an order directing the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to increase federal funding from 33 percent to 75 percent of the cost of construction of a municipal sewage treatment plant, the court affirms the district court's granting of summary judgment to the plaint...

Granting judgment for defendants, the court affirms the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's approval of the California Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) pursuant to §306 of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). Plaintiff oil companies and trade associations have standing because t...

The court issues a preliminary injunction requiring defendant to install a flue gas desulfurization system to bring Unit 3 of its coal-fired Mitchell Power Station into compliance with sulfur dioxide emission limitations set by the Pennsylvania state implementation plan and warns that a penalty of $...

Following litigation resulting in a settlement agreement requiring the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate industry-by-industry limitations on discharges of toxic substances into navigable waters, counsel for the plaintiff environmental groups and industrial intervenor...

The court orders the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant petitioner an adjudicatory hearing on its request for an extension of the July 1, 1977, best practicable technology compliance deadlines in the national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit issued for its Albright, ...

Granting defendants' motion for summary judgment, the court decides that it lacks jurisdiction to consider challenges to the approval by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the Massachusetts and Wisconsin coastal zone management programs. Plaintiffs, oil companies and an in...

On cross-motions for summary judgment in a case challenging the adequacy of the Corps of Engineers' environmental impact statement (EIS) on a request for congressional authorization for the proposed Lock and Dam 26 project, the court denies plaintiffs' motion and grants defendants' motion in part. S...

In an appeal of three consolidated cases, the court considers six issues relating to the proper interpretation and constitutionality of the North Dakota Highway Beautification Act, N.D. Century Code ch. 24-17. That statute, enacted in 1967 to comply with the Federal Highway Beautification Act, 23 U....

The court rejects plaintiff's motions for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against closure of the comment period on the Interior Department's draft environmental impact statement (EIS) supplement on federal disposition of the Alaska National Interest Lands and the taking of...