The cases listed below appear in the most recent issue of ELR's Weekly Update. For cases previously reported, please use the filter on the left.
Volume 42, Issue 6
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court decision that Montana may charge rent from an electric company that owns dams on the Missouri, Madison, and Clark Fork rivers.
A New York court upheld a town's zoning amendment that bans hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) within its jurisdiction. The zoning amendment was enacted in response to a petition from town residents concerned about hydrofracking's impact on ground and surface water supplies.
The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's rule designating certain areas in Utah as nonattainment for the 2006 24-hour fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard.
A district court upheld EPA's rule setting numeric nutrient criteria for Florida except in two respects: the stream criteria and the default downstream-protection criteria for unimpaired lakes.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a conservation group's claims that the State Department violated its NEPA and ESA obligations in conducting annual certifications of countries exempted from the general ban on shrimp imports. Section 609(b) of Public Law No.
The Fourth Circuit dismissed environmental groups' NEPA claim against the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation concerning improvements to a highway.
The Ninth Circuit held that DOE's environmental assessment of a prospective "biosafety level-3" facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory complied with NEPA. DOE took the requisite "hard look" at the threat of a direct terrorist attack at the facility.
The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service did not violate NEPA when it allowed a ski resort operator to make artificial snow with reclaimed water. The lower court erred in holding that the suit was barred by laches.
The First Circuit upheld the dismissal of residents' Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) against the United States in connection with the Navy's alleged negligence in emitting certain pollutants during military exercises at a naval training facility on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico.
A Maryland appellate court held that under certain circumstances, Maryland law permits recovery for emotional distress related to reasonable fear of cancer.