The D.C. Circuit affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit concerning reserved water rights in the Klamath River Basin. Ranchers sued to prevent Native American tribes from exercising reserved water rights in the basin that interfered with the ranchers' ability to irrigate their land. The district court dismi...
The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in a lawsuit concerning President Barack Obama's 2016 proclamation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument off the New England coast. Commercial fishing groups had petitioned the Court to overturn the D.C. Circuit's 2019 decision uphol...
The U.S. Supreme Court, in an ongoing dispute between Florida and Georgia over the apportionment of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin's waters, agreed unanimously with a special master's latest recommendation on remand that Florida's request for a cap on Georgia's consumption of water...
A state court reversed the Maryland Department of the Environment's (MDE's) decision to reissue an NPDES general permit for animal feeding operations without limitations on the discharge of gaseous ammonia. An environmental group argued the permit was deficient under both the CWA and state law becau...
The Fourth Circuit granted a pipeline company's petition to review the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality's (NCDEQ's) denial of a CWA §401 certification for construction of a natural gas pipeline. The company argued the denial was arbitrary and capricious because NCDEQ did not compl...
The Tenth Circuit reversed and vacated a district court order preliminarily enjoining EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers from implementing the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) in Colorado. Colorado argued the agencies violated the APA because the NWPR was not in accordance with the law,...
The Montana Supreme Court reversed, 5-2, a lower court decision reversing the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation's (DNRC's) issuance of a beneficial water use permit for a proposed silver and copper mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. The mining company and DNRC appe...
The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court order staying state law claims in a lawsuit concerning the California Water Resources Board's amendments to its water quality control plan for the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta system. The U.S. government brought the suit, arguing the ...
A district court denied an Apache group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the exchange of sacred land in Tonto National Forest to two foreign mining companies for mineral exploration. The group argued the land was held in trust by the U.S. government for the Western Apaches through an 1852 treaty, an...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a district court's dismissal of a county's complaint in long-standing litigation over appropriation of water in the Walker River Basin. The county argued the public interest and maintenance of the public trust required that water flows reach Wal...