The Second Circuit vacated a decision by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation denying a state water quality certification for construction of a natural gas pipeline through northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York. The pipeline company argued that the Department's denial...

A district court granted environmental groups' request to compel the U.S. Chemical and Safety Hazard Investigation Board to promulgate regulations concerning accidental chemical releases. The groups argued that the Board's failure to implement reporting regulations in the 27 years since Congress ame...

The D.C. Circuit vacated a FERC decision concerning a licensee's decommissioning plan with reviewing states for hydroelectric dams along the Klamath River. A Native American tribe challenged FERC's determination that California and Oregon had not waived their water quality certification authority un...

A state appellate court reversed a judgment against a coastal use permit issued by Louisiana's Department of Natural Resources for construction of an oil pipeline. The Department argued that the lower court erred in not deferring to the Department's finding that its coastal use permit (CUP) guidelin...

A state court upheld the North Dakota Department of Health's decision to issue an air quality permit for construction of an oil refinery less than three miles from Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Environmental groups argued that the Department's decision to issue a synthetic minor source permit ra...

A district court dismissed a Native American tribe's lawsuit challenging a proposed sulfide mine along the banks of the Menominee River, which forms the border between Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The tribe argued, pursuant to the Act's citizen suit provision, that EPA and the U.S. Army...

A district court denied EPA's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by several states alleging that the Agency failed to implement and enforce its 2016 Emission Guidelines and Compliance Times for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills. The Agency argued that the CAA did not unequivocally waive sovereign imm...

In an unpublished opinion, a state appellate court affirmed a lower court's ruling that a Wisconsin landowner violated state law by discharging fill material into a wetland on his property. The lower court found that the landowner had filled waters of the state without obtaining a permit, in violati...

The Fourth Circuit vacated the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' verification that construction of a natural gas pipeline could proceed in West Virginia under the terms and conditions of CWA Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12. Environmental groups argued that the Corps improperly incorporated the state's condit...

A district court vacated nationwide the Applicability Date Rule, which suspended the effect of the Clean Water Rule until February 2020 and required agencies in the interim to apply the pre-Clean Water Rule definition of "waters of the United States." Environmental groups argued that EPA and the U.S...