A district court held that FWS complied with NEPA when it approved the opening and expansion of sport hunting in 60 National Wildlife Refuges. Between 1997 and 2005, the FWS issued nine final rules creating or expanding recreational hunting opportunities on 60 wildlife refuges. In 2006, a court...

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 the United States' motion to dismiss a Native American tribe's claims against it in connection with the government's remediation of a former uranium mill located on the Navajo Nation Reservation near Tuba City, Arizona. In 1985, the DOE and the tribe entered into a coop...

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 denied environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin the BLM from authorizing the site clearing and construction of a wind energy facility in Spring Valley, Nevada. The groups are not likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that an EIS was required. The BLM's deci...

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 district court held that mining companies violated the selenium effluent limitations set forth in their state-issued NPDES and surface mining permits. The companies had sought permit modifications from the state's environmental agency, and when those requests were denied, the companies appeal...