Massachusetts' highest court vacated a nuclear power company's action seeking a judgment declaring that state regulations governing cooling water intake structures (CWIS) exceeded the state environmental agency's authority under the commonwealth's Clean Waters Act. A lower court ruled that the ...
The Michigan Supreme Court vacated its previous decision at 41 ELR 20056 in which it held that a company's plan to discharge contaminated water from an environmental cleanup site in the Manistee River watershed into a previously unpolluted site in the AuSable River watershed was manife...
A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision dismissing petitioners' action to compel the state health department to prepare and submit a safe drinking water plan to the state legislature as required by state law. The department argued before the trial court that the statutory m...
A California appellate court held that a city did not violate the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it approved an affordable housing project. In approving the project, the city concluded that the project satisfied the categorical exemption for in-fill development projects. Altho...
A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of a petition challenging a city's environmental impact report (EIR) for and approval of a park project. An environmental group argued that the EIR failed to adequately analyze construction-related water quality impacts, the impact of using trea...
A district court granted in part a bottling company's motion to dismiss individuals' tort and state law claims against it for groundwater contamination. The individuals alleged that the company violated the terms of their wastewater discharge permit by spraying excess wastewater over a sustaine...
A district court modified its equitable allocation of costs under §113 of CERCLA and the New Jersey Spill Act in connection with a site contaminated with TCE and other hazardous substances. The court originally allocated 65% of costs to the plaintiffs, 32% to the defendants, and 3% to the federal g...
A Michigan appellate court upheld the state environmental agency's concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) rule. The challenged rule falls within the scope of the agency's statutory rulemaking authority, is rationally related to the agency's statutory mandate to protect Michigan's waters from p...
Offshore areas are under pressure to industrialize for renewable energy. To plan for offshore wind development, Rhode Island engaged in a marine spatial planning process that resulted in the Ocean Special Area Management Plan (O-SAMP), a regulatory invention of the Coastal Zone Management Act. Notably, the Rhode Island O-SAMP maps and plans for uses in federal waters beyond the three-mile line dividing state and fedeal jurisdiction, as well as within the state's territorial sea, posing a challenge to the boundaries of offshore federalism.