The D.C. Circuit denied trade associations' petition for review of a nationwide permit issued by EPA for the discharge of pollutants incidental to the normal operation of vessels. The associations, which represent commercial ship owners and operators, raised a number of procedural challenges, al...

A district court held that utilities who sold used transformers to a scrap metal company in the 1970s are not liable under CERCLA or the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act. After Connecticut's environmental department discovered PCB contamination on the property, the current owner of t...

The Fifth Circuit vacated portions of EPA's 2008 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) rule. The rule requires CAFOs that propose to discharge to apply for an NPDES permit. But there must be an actual discharge into navigable waters to trigger the CWA's requirements. EPA, therefore,...

The Ninth Circuit held that a local flood district is liable under the CWA for discharging polluted stormwater into the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. Environmental groups filed suit against the flood district as well as against a county for unlawful stormwater discharges into the Los A...

The Fourth Circuit held that a biological opinion issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service as part of EPA's process of reregistering the insecticides chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion is subject to judicial review under the APA. The Service's biological opinion concluded that the...

A district court held that an environmental group may go forward with its CWA claim against a gas and electric company for unpermitted stormwater discharges from its service yards, but dismissed the group's RCRA claim. The company filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that its service yards do ...

The Ninth Circuit held that a timber company has standing to challenge EPA's decision to retain the Redwood Creek in Northern California as an impaired water body under CWA §303(d). The company has suffered a reduction in the economic value of its property in the Redwood Creek watershed, and the co...

A district court granted a motion to transfer the West Virginia environmental agency's action against EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers challenging their permitting processes for coal mining to the D.C. District Court for consolidation with another case filed by a mining industry trad...

A district court dismissed landowners' OPA claim against a company for damages stemming from an oil spill in the Verdigris River in Kansas, but denied the company's motion to dismiss the landowners' nuisance claim. The landowners failed to file their OPA claim within the three-year statute o...

A district court dismissed a motion to dismiss environmental groups' citizen suit against five coal companies alleging thousands of violations of the CWA and SMCRA in West Virginia. Because EPA entered into a consent decree with the companies, the defendants argued that the groups' CWA claim...