A district court dismissed a RCRA citizen suit brought against present and former owners of chemical plants for allegedly releasing radioactive slag deposited on landowners' properties in New York. The landowners sought injunctive relief under RCRA, including ordering the plant owners to evaluate ea...

The Tenth Circuit denied a company's petition to review an Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) decision denying its petition to review a 2017 permit issued by EPA to an upstream wastewater treatment plant. In its petition, the company argued the permit constituted backsliding under the CWA, particular...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal of a Native American tribe's breach of trust claim in a lawsuit concerning water rights to the Colorado River. The tribe initially sued DOI, arguing the Department violated NEPA and breached its trust obligations based on its management of the ...

The First Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a ruling in a CWA citizen suit brought against developers of a construction site in Worcester, Massachusetts. An environmental group argued that one developer violated the CWA by failing to obtain a general construction permit, and that both de...

A district court granted in part and denied in part BLM's and FWS' motion to dismiss a lawsuit over an environmental group's petition to list a rare wildflower species in Nevada as endangered. The group first argued FWS unreasonably delayed responding to its request for emergency listing of Tiehm's ...

A district court vacated and remanded FWS' and the Forest Service's approval of the first phase of a proposed copper and silver mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. Tribal and environmental groups argued the agencies violated the ESA by failing to reinitiate consultation on the mine's impa...

A district court granted an environmental group's motion for summary judgment in a challenge to FWS' withdrawal of a rule proposed in 2015 to list the Lower Colorado River (LCR) Basin roundtail chub as a threatened species. The group argued that FWS' withdrawal of the rule rested entirely on the Ser...

A district court denied a motion for preliminary injunction in a lawsuit concerning irrigation of a golf course in Big Sky, Montana. Environmental groups argued a Montana water district over-irrigated the course, resulting in nitrogen and other pollutants leaching into groundwater that naturally sit...

A district court denied an environmental group's motion for summary judgment in a challenge to NMFS' approval of an amendment to a fishery management plan (FMP) for an Atlantic herring fishery. The group argued NMFS violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) by failing to designate river herring, which...

A district court granted in part and denied in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to incidental take regulations promulgated by NMFS that authorized certain oil and gas exploration and production activities in Cook Inlet. The groups argued that NMFS violated the Ma...