The court rules that regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency establishing recommended maximum contaminant levels (RMCLs) are reviewable only in the Court of Appeals or the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) under §1448(a)(1) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). While §...

The court holds that residents of an area affected byf releases from a hazardous waste disposal site may intervene as of right under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a)(2) in a government action to force the site owner and waste generators and transporters to clean up the site. Concerned Neighbors...

The court holds that the Corps of Engineers satisfied the National Environmental Policy Act's (NENVIRONMENTAL PROCTECTION AGENCY's) requirements to take a "hard look" at the environmental consequences of a dam on the Rogue River in Oregon and was not required to consider the cumulative impacts of th...

The court holds that tort claims arising from alleged exposure to low levels of radioactivity are not preempted by the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), or barred by the political question doctrine, and that Missouri law may allow claims in strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities involving radia...

The court affirms a district court ruling that the Coast Guard arbitrarily and capriciously approved a permit for a causeway to Sears Island, Maine, by treating it as a bridge governed by the General Bridge Act rather than subjecting it to the applicable and more stringent conditions of the Rivers a...

The court holds that citizen suits may be brought under §505 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act only if the defendant is in violation of relevant effluent standards, limitations, or orders at the time the suit is filed. The court, following the Fifth Circuit's ruling in Hamker v. Diamond Sh...

The court holds that the state Hazardous Waste Management Commission's denial of a license to a hazardous waste transporter is not arbitrary and capricious. The Missouri hazardous waste control law applies to preenactment actions, and petitioner can be held responsible for its predecessors-in-intere...

The court rules that §3007(a) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to request information about a hazardous waste handler's preparation of responses to inquiries, transactions with its customers, and individual defendants' roles i...

The court issues a declaratory judgment that defendants are "taking" endangered wildlife in violation of §9 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 by maintaining feral sheep and goat populations for sport hunting which are destroying the critical habitat of the Palila, an endangered bird, on the upp...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a district court's judgment rejecting challenges on various grounds by nearby landowners to the location of F-15 jet aircraft at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. Appellants have failed to show that the lower court erred in concluding that the Air Force's env...