The Fourth Circuit held that citizens may bring suit alleging a violation of the CWA when the source of the pollution is no longer releasing the pollutant, but the pollutant continues to be discharged into surface waterways via groundwater. In late 2014, several hundred thousand gallons of gasoline ...
A district court held that a company is liable under RCRA for soil and water contamination at a former solid waste disposal area it used and operated in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Environmental groups filed motions for partial summary judgment against the company, claiming it was liable because...
Pennsylvania's highest court held that the $10,000/day civil penalty under the Clean Streams Law does not apply to each day that pollutants leaked from an impoundment remain in the groundwater and then leach into other waters of the Commonwealth. The case arose after the state environmental agency a...
A district court held it could not rule on the merits as to whether EPA violated the APA when it approved Ohio's 2016 impaired water list, but nevertheless remanded the case to EPA so it could approve or disapprove Ohio's incomplete CWA §303 list. Under the CWA, states must submit to EPA a list of ...
The Ninth Circuit upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' issuance of a CWA §404 permit authorizing the discharge of materials into the Santa Clara River as part of a large-scale residential, commercial, and industrial development project in Los Angeles County. The proposed project would encompass...
A district court ordered EPA to promulgate revised CAA emission standards for nine industrial sectors by October 1, 2021. Environmental groups wanted the overdue rulemakings to be completed within two years, while the Agency requested seven years. The court determined that three and a half years was...
The Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing an environmental restoration company's lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for building new wetlands without considering whether it should buy mitigation credits from the company. The company, which invests in projects that re...
The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's 2012 regional haze rule, which seeks to restore air quality and visibility in certain national parks and wilderness areas to what they would be under natural conditions. The rule requires states to impose best available retrofit technology (BART) on certain stationary p...
The D.C. Circuit granted in part and denied in part petitions concerning EPA's NESHAPs for industrial boilers. The first challenge raised by environmental groups concerned regulations that indirectly control a group of organic pollutants by limiting carbon monoxide emissions as a proxy for the targe...
The Fifth Circuit stayed a preliminary injunction that barred a company from constructing a crude oil pipeline through the environmentally sensitive Atchafalaya Basin. An environmental group claimed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unlawfully issued a permit allowing the construction, and a low...