The Sixth Circuit narrowly construes the Army Corps of Engineers' regulatory definition of "wetlands," issued pursuant to §404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), to exclude areas with wetlands vegetation not dependent on surface water inundation. The federal government initiated a ...

The court rules that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) does not require the Corps of Engineers to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) before signing a series of contracts with the city of Tulsa for water storage in the Oologah Reservoir because the storage rights were guarante...

The court rules that citizens living near a hazardous waste disposal site may not intervene as of right in a government cleanup action, but allows permissive intervention with restrictions. Initially, the court rules that none of the statutory provisions cited by applicants, §1431 of the Safe Drink...

The court rules that §107(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) allows imposition of joint and several liability, but that the imminent hazard provisions of CERCLA and other environmental statutes do not. The court first rules that CERCLA §107(a) ...

The court rules that §107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) is retroactive as applied to defendants if it creates new legal obligations, and may be challenged under the Contract Clause. The court rules that CERCLA §107 satisfies the first prong o...

The court rules that defendants' condemnation of plaintiffs' lands for a sewage sludge landfill neither deprived plaintiffs of their civil rights nor violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). After selecting plaintiffs' land as a disposal site, defendants materially changed their dispos...

The court holds that it has subject matter jurisdiction over a citizen suit to compel the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) and that the suit states a valid cause of action.First, the court holds that it has jurisdiction to hear plaintif...

The court holds that business persons who allegedly lost profits but suffered no physical damage to property or person as a result of a toxic chemical spill from appellees' vessel cannot recover their losses. The court holds that vessel owners, terminal operators, commercial fishing operations, and ...

The court rules that, in light of significant new information on the health effects of extremely low frequency (ELF) radiation, the Navy must prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) on its proposal to reactivate its ELF submarine communication facility in Wisconsin and Upper Mich...

The court rules that the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Y-12 nuclear weapons components plant is subject to the provisions of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and that DOE has violated the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) by allowing unpermitted discharges of pollutants f...