The Alaska Supreme Court held that a proposed clean water initiative relating to the regulation of large-scale metallic mineral mines was constitutionally and statutorily permissible and was qualified to appear on a statewide 2008 election ballot. The initiative would not make a constitutionally imp...

The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded a district court decision dismissing a Philippine island's action claiming that an American company polluted its waters. According to the complaint, Placer Dome severely polluted the lands and waters of Marinduque for some 30 years, caused two cataclysmic envi...

A California appellate court remanded in part a lower court decision denying a paint manufacturing association's petition challenging amendments to an air district rule limiting the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) allowed in various kinds of paints and coatings. The association argued th...

The court reverses the dismissal of the Louisiana Fish & Game Preserve Commission's takings claim against the United States in a case involving a conflict between the state commission's duty to maintain the Northwest Fish and Game Preserve and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (the Corps') respo...

The court grants a local water authority's motion to intervene in a case brought by environmental groups challenging the validity of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's biological opinion concerning the coordinated operation of the federally managed Central Valley Project (CVP) and California's Sta...

The court vacates the dismissal of dairy farmers' claims that their cows and farmland were poisoned by defendant's factory emissions over several decades. Because there is a material issue of fact as to whether the farmers exercised reasonable diligence in determining the cause of their cows' sympto...

The court affirms the dismissal of individuals' state-law counterclaims against a gasoline company that was suing them under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for contamination at a service station. A ...

The court denies a railway company's petition for review of a Surface Transportation Board order rejecting as unreasonable certain rates the railroad charged to a company to ship coal. The board issued its ruling three-and-one-half years after a complaint was filed. Because 49 U.S.C. §11701(c) prov...

The court vacates and remands a lower court decision upholding a state university's approval of an environmental impact report prepared in connection with plans to expand its campus on a former army base. Although the university agrees to mitigate effects occurring on the campus itself, it disclaims...

The court vacates an individual's sentence for illegally dredging North Carolina's Croatan Sound during a bridge construction project and remands the case for resentencing. The district court misapplied U.S. Sentencing Guideline §5K2.20 when it granted the individual a downward departure for aberra...