The court holds that the Commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are entitled to qualified immunity from a class action suit seeking money damages resulting from two NRC orders authorizing the release of radioactive gas from the Three Mile Island-2 reactor without a prior hearing pu...
The court rules that the citizen suit provision of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) does not authorize a municipality to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or state agencies in federal district court seeking an order to award a sewage treatment grant. The court first holds ...
The court holds that the Corps of Engineers was not arbitrary or capricious in requiring Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) or Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA) individual permits for various actions diking and draining a Louisiana cypress-tupelo gum swamp. The court first holds that the arbitra...
In consolidated cases, the Ninth Circuit affirms, as modified for added breadth, two district court injunctions, 13 ELR 20887 and 14 ELR 20225, against the spraying of herbicides in certain federally managed forests in Oregon, and orders that some of the plaintiffs below be awarded attorney fees. Tu...
The court holds that a salt mining operation that has heavily polluted an aquifer used for domestic water supply and for irrigation is a continuing nuisance. The court holds that the salt plant is primarily a private nuisance, since the rights disturbed by the pollutants released are primarily the r...
The court rules that an employer that participated in preenforcement administrative and judicial review of Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) lead standards may not raise new objections to the standards in an enforcement action. The court in the past had allowed defendants in enforcement a...
The court rules that plaintiffs, who successfully challenged the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance of federal and state approvals of the Westway highway project in New York City, are entitled to attorney fees under the common-law bad-faith exception to the American Rule. The court ...
The court holds that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must act on its proposed standards under Clean Air Act §112 for radionuclides within 90 days. The court first grants the petition of the Idaho Mining Association to intervene in the case. It rules that the Association has the requisite ...
The court amends its order of July 25, 1984, 15 ELR 20080 to give the option of delisting radionuclides under §112 of the Clean Air Act in addition to the option of promulgating final hazardous air pollutant rules.
[Other decisions in this case are published at 15 ELR 20080 and 20101. Related deci...
The court holds that Federal Water Pollution Control Act §404(f)(1)'s agricultural exemption is to be construed narrowly to exempt only certain farming activities that do not reduce the size of wetlands or impede the circulation of water in wetlands. The owners of a cranberry farm containing the la...