The Sixth Circuit issued a nationwide stay enjoining the "waters of the United States" rule pending the court's determination as to whether it has subject matter jurisdiction to review the rule. The court held that the petitioning states demonstrated a substantial possibility of success on the merit...

A North Carolina appellate court upheld the constitutionality of state legislation that withdrew a city's authority to own and operate its public water system and to instead transfer it to a sewer district. The law creates a new type of political subdivision, known as a metropolitan water and sewera...

A district court denied in part motions to dismiss as time barred Puerto Rico's lawsuit against various oil companies for methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) groundwater contamination. Under Puerto Rico law, once the defendant has established that the injury occurred more than one year prior to the f...

A district court upheld EPA's decision to withdraw a proposed rule that would have required concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to provide information to the Agency to help facilitate EPA's ability to regulate their discharge of pollutants into the waters of the United States under the CW...

The D.C. Circuit upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's NEPA and CWA claims against the U.S. government in connection with a 593-mile oil pipeline that runs from Illinois to Oklahoma on both public and private lands. Despite the group's claims to the contrary, the government was not requir...

The Supreme Court of Ohio held that a regional sewer district has the authority to create and impose fees for a stormwater management program. The applicable statute authorizes the sewer district to collect, treat, and dispose of "waste water," defined as "any storm water and any water containing se...

A district court held that its preliminary injunction enjoining EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from implementing the "waters of the United States" rule only extends to the 13 plaintiff states that challenged it. The court found significant prudential reasons to limit the scope of the preli...

A district court dismissed EPA's enforcement action against a developer for filling wetlands in violation of the CWA and ordered the Agency to pay attorney fees the developer incurred defending the suit. Relying on the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715, 36 ELR 20...

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation did not violate the CWA by discharging pollutants into the Klamath River without a permit in connection with its management of an irrigation project along the California-Oregon border. The Klamath Straits Drain, part of the Klamath Irrigatio...

A district court held that it lacked jurisdiction over a coal company's lawsuit challenging EPA's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' controversial "waters of the United States" rule. The agencies filed a motion to stay the case based, in part, on their position that exclusive jurisdiction to hear...