The Ninth Circuit held that ESA §§7 and 9, as applied to the California delta smelt, do not violate the Commerce Clause. In 2008, the FWS issued a biological opinion (BiOp) to the Bureau of Reclamation concerning two federal and state water diversion projects in California's Central Valley...

The Tenth Circuit held that an individual's conviction under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act for unlawfully possessing 141 eagle feathers does not violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The individual is a follower of a Native American faith but is neither a member of a fede...

A district court vacated the FWS' removal of the Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel from the list of endangered species. Instead of applying the criteria set forth in the squirrel's recovery plan when it issued the delisting rule, the FWS conducted an analysis based on the five listing factors contai...

The Third Circuit upheld regulations issued by the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) implementing an amendment to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan that, among other things, sets a "control date" that effectively terminates the access rights of general scallop fishermen w...

A district court dismissed a county's RCRA action against the former owner of contaminated property, but held that the former owner was liable to the county under CERCLA. The county purchased the property, a former rifle lens manufacturing plant, from the former owners. The property was then...

The Fourth Circuit reversed a lower court decision that an insurance company was obligated to pay the sums a landfill owner had incurred and was likely to incur in response to an EPA cleanup order. The insurance company issued the landfill owner a standard comprehensive general liability ins...

The Fifth Circuit held that the Superfund Recycling Equity Act (SREA)—an amendment to CERCLA that exempts certain recyclers from liability for cleanup costs under CERCLA and awards costs and fees to any recyclers improperly sued for contribution under CERCLA—does not apply to state-law actions. ...

A district court held that the United States is an arranger and operator under CERCLA with regard to the waste disposal sites at four phosphate mines in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. The United States conditioned its approval of mine plans on requiring the lessees to perform specific reclamat...

The Ninth Circuit held that the holder of a revocable permit to use real property is not an "owner" of that real property for purposes of imposing liability under CERCLA for the cleanup of hazardous substances disposed on that property by others. Under California common law, the holder of a revocabl...

A district court held that a paper company is entitled to contribution from a downstream company for costs it incurred cleaning up PCB contamination at four of five operable units along a river. The court previously ruled that the downstream company was not entitled to contribution from the ...