The Illinois Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit concerning the city of Chicago's replacement of water meters and water main pipes as well as the partial replacement of lead service lines that run between water mains and residences throughout the city. City residents brought a negligence claim against...

The Tenth Circuit held, 2-1, that a sovereign must affirmatively act to extinguish aboriginal water rights in a lawsuit concerning water rights of the Pueblos of Jemez, Santa Ana, and Zia in the Jemez River Basin in New Mexico. The district court had concluded that the Pueblos' water rights were ext...

The Nevada Supreme Court held that the public trust doctrine did not permit reallocation of water rights already adjudicated and settled under the doctrine of prior appropriation in a lawsuit concerning established water rights for a deteriorating lake in western Nevada. The court found that while t...

A district court denied a motion to reconsider its 2018 ruling that gave EPA discretion as to how to establish a new TMDL for trash in the Anacostia River. An environmental group argued that little progress had been made since the 2018 ruling and that the court should require the Agency to establish...

In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit granted in part and denied in part an environmental group's petition to review EPA's approval of the Idaho Pollution Discharge Elimination System (IPDES). Specifically, the court denied the petition with respect to the group's challenges concerning the st...

The Washington Supreme Court upheld the Department of Ecology's rule that set a summertime minimum instream-flow rate for the Spokane River at 850 cubic feet per second (cfs). Environmental groups challenged the validity of the flow rate, arguing that setting minimum flows at 850 cfs exceeded the De...

The Sixth Circuit dismissed as moot a lawsuit seeking to preliminarily enjoin EPA's 2015 Clean Water Rule that clarified the definition of "waters of the United States" under the CWA. Ohio and Tennessee challenged the validity of the rule, arguing it extended the scope of the CWA beyond the reach of...

A district court denied summary judgment for New York in a challenge to EPA's designation of the eastern Long Island Sound as an open-water dredge disposal site. New York argued EPA's determination that a new site was needed to service the eastern Sound was arbitrary and capricious, that the Agency ...

A district court stayed the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which substantially narrows the definition of "waters of the United States" that are subject to federal regulation under the CWA, in Colorado. Colorado argued that the Supreme Court's ruling in Rapanos v. United States foreclosed the appr...

A district court denied a motion for preliminary relief in a challenge to the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which substantially narrows the definition of "waters of the United States" that are subject to federal regulation under the CWA. California argued that EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers...