The Fifth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision ordering EPA to determine whether new water quality standards were necessary to control nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the mainstem of the Mississippi River and the Northern Gulf of Mexico. The case arose after EPA denied environme...

The Eighth Circuit held that a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers jurisdictional determination (JD) is a final agency action under the APA, thereby creating a split between the circuits. The case arose after a company sought to mine peat from wetland property owned by two affiliated companies in northwest...

The Sixth Circuit held that USDA failed to comply with its own regulations when it determined a farm was ineligible for program benefits under the "Swampbuster" provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985. USDA determined the farm was ineligible for benefits because it converted two acres of wetland...

A district court held that EPA does not have a mandatory duty to review an amendment to the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act under the CWA. The amendment allows the use of certain on-lot sewage systems to satisfy the state's antidegradation requirements. An environmental group claimed the amendmen...

A district court dismissed environmentalists' claim that EPA should have reviewed the entirety of Florida's impaired water rule (IWR), not just the portion that constitutes a new or revised water quality standard. States retain discretion to enact and to enforce—without EPA’s review and approval...

The Eleventh Circuit remanded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' conclusion that Nationwide Permit 21 (NWP 21), a general permit that allows surface coal mining operations to discharge dredged or fill materials into navigable waters, would have no more than minimal environmental effects under NEPA an...

A district court held that although EPA did not violate its nondiscretionary duty under the CWA to either approve or disapprove a TMDL for PCBs in the state of Washington, it acted contrary to law in determining that a "Regional Toxics Task Force" was a suitable alternative. Environmental groups fil...

The Fourth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed a lower court decision upholding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' conclusion that it has jurisdiction over wetlands on a developer's property. The developer wanted to fill 4.8 acres of wetlands in order to build 10 homes. The wetlands are loca...

The D.C. Circuit upheld DOI's five-year plan for oil and gas leases on the outer continental shelf (OCS). A nonprofit group argued that the 2012-2017 leasing schedule violated §18(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which governs how DOI is to balance competing economic, social, and enviro...

The U.S. Supreme Court adopted a Special Master's determination that Nebraska "knowingly failed" to comply with its obligations under a 2002 settlement agreement that resolved an underlying water allocation dispute between Nebraska and Kansas. The settlement established mechanisms to accurately meas...