The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a state law banning uranium mining on private lands in Virginia. A mining company argued the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) preempted the law and reserved to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) alone the authority to regulate uranium mining based on nuclear safety concerns...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal of a challenge to the use of lead ammunition in Kaibab National Forest. Environmental groups sought to require the U.S. Forest Service to address the use of lead ammunition by hunters in the national forest, alleging the the Service's failure t...

The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that upheld the Iowa Utilities Board's approval of a 170-turbine wind project in northwest Iowa. Landowners argued that the project was located at a "single site" and thus should have required a certificate of public convenience, use, and necessit...

A district court denied a city's motion for a preliminary injunction in a RCRA lawsuit against two utility companies that owned a long-abandoned manufactured gas plant. The city alleged that the plant had contaminated soil in a nearby park and around a decommissioned water main, and sought to requir...

A district court granted residents' motion for summary judgment in a RCRA lawsuit against the city of New Orleans for inhumane and dangerous living conditions at a residential development located on a former landfill site previously operated by the city. The residents argued that the city had previo...

A district court denied EPA's motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two states and a Native American tribe seeking to recover response costs from the 2015 Gold King mine spill that sent millions of gallons of acid mine drainage into the Animas and San Juan Rivers. EPA argued that it retained sover...

A district court granted in part and denied in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment relating to a proposal to permit hydraulic fracturing operations off the coast of California. The groups argued that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Bureau of Safety and Environmen...

The Sixth Circuit held that seepage from a coal-fired power plant that reached a nearby lake violated RCRA, but not the CWA. Environmental groups argued that the chemicals being stored in coal ash ponds contaminated the surrounding groundwater, which in turn contaminated a nearby lake, in violation ...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's ruling that a Canadian smelter company that dumped several million tons of industrial waste into the Columbia River was liable for a Native American tribe's response costs. The company argued that CERCLA did not allow the tribe to recover its costs of es...

A Pennsylvania state court granted in part and denied in part an industry trade group's challenge to state rules governing hydraulic fracturing near playgrounds. The group argued that the rules' definitions for "common areas of a school's property" and "playground" were unlawful, unreasonable, and u...