The court upholds Resource Conservation and Recovery Act civil penalties of $ 4,746,500 against a gas station owner for violating U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrative orders issued after a serious gasoline spill from the station. The court first holds that the civil penalty impo...

The court holds that three electric utilities may maintain their breach of contract claims against the government for the failure to begin by January 1, 1998, the disposal of spent nuclear fuel waste produced at the utilities' plant as agreed to in a 1983 contract. The government conceded that it wo...

The court reverses the dismissal of a utility's breach of contract claim against the government for failing to dispose of the utility's spent nuclear waste beginning no later than January 1, 1998, as agreed to in a 1983 contract. The government notified the utility that it would be unable to begin d...

The court refuses to preliminarily enjoin a lessee from using a soil vapor extraction (SVE) cleanup method during the remediation of its leased property or to require the lessee to remediate all contamination at the site. The lessee subleased the property at issue to a dry cleaner who released hazar...

The court holds that it lacked original jurisdiction under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) to review an environmental group's petition to set aside a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) order that provides a process for determining whether certain radioactive waste streams are waste incidental to re...

The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may seek to enforce the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's (RCRA's) financial assurances requirements against an engineering company even though the state of Colorado already initiated an enforcement action against the company...

The court holds that the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) amended contract with a nuclear power plant operator constituted a direct payment of Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) monies and was unlawful under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA). DOE entered into contracts with the nuclear power plants to fu...

The court holds that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) does not authorize a citizen suit against a California city's solid waste disposal site for violation of RCRA authorized state regulations that are more stringent than federal minimum standards. The court first holds that RCRA au...

The court denies several utilities' and states' broad request for a writ of mandamus that would require the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to begin disposing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act's (NWPA's) January 31, 1998, deadline. But the court precludes DOE from excusing ...

The court holds that an electric arc furnace dust recycler's petition to review a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) rule that excludes electric arc furnace dust from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's (RCRA's) hazardous waste list was not filed within RCRA §7006's 90-day fili...