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The Supreme Court Restricts the Availability of Forest-Wide Judicial Review in Ohio Forestry Association v. Sierra Club

Editors' Summary: This past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its decision in Ohio Forestry Ass'n v. Sierra Club, 118 S. Ct. 1665, 28 ELR 21119 (1998). The Court held that an environmental group's challenge to a U.S. Forest Service land and resource management plan for the Wayne National Forest in Ohio was not ripe for review. This Article examines how this decision affects the rules for judicial review of national forest plans.

The Never Ending Story: The Constitutionality of Superfund's Retroactive Liability Regime

Since the enactment of Superfund in 1980, critics of the statute's liability regime have been relentless in their attempts to convince courts that Superfund liability is so unfair as to be unconstitutional. While their persistence has produced only minor changes in the liability regime, their cause may have been given a lift by the U.S. Supreme Court's 1998 decision in Eastern Enterprises v. Apfel.

Arrest the Incinerator Remediation, Inc. v. OHM Remediation Servs. Corp.

The court holds that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) preempts a citizens group's private state-law nuisance action against a contractor hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remediate a Superfund site. The court first holds that...

United States v. Penn Hills, Municipality of

The court holds that a municipality is liable for diverting raw sewage from its treatment facilities and for discharging pollutants that exceeded allowable effluent limitations in violation of its national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permits. The court first holds that the municip...

International Ass'n of Indep. Tanker Owners v. Locke

A judge dissents from the Ninth Circuit's decision not to rehear a case addressing the Oil Pollution Act's (OPA's) preemptive effect on Washington State's oil spill prevention regulations. The initial Ninth Circuit opinion held that the OPA did not preempt the majority of the state's oil spill regul...

Amigos Bravos v. Molycorp, Inc.

The court holds that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction to review environmental groups' Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) citizen suit against a mining company allegedly discharging pollutants from its waste rock piles into a river via groundwater seepage without a national pollutant dis...

South Bronx Coalition for Clean Air v. Conroy

The court dismisses environmental groups' motion to enjoin the sale of a former bus depot in the South Bronx, New York. The sale is part of a plan to develop a former rail yard adjacent to the depot. The plan provides for an intermodal freight terminal, a solid waste transfer station, a paper recycl...

Ross v. Federal Highway Admin.

The court affirms a district court decision enjoining further construction on a Kansas highway project until the Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) completes a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) for a segment of the project. The court first...

Michigan Peat v. EPA

The court reverses a district court's dismissal of a peat company's Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) §404 and takings claims against the federal government concerning a proposed §404 permit. The court first holds that the district court erred in finding that it did not have subject matt...

Informed Citizens United, Inc. v. USX Corp.

The court grants summary judgment to a company that allegedly violated its Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) §404 permit by filling wetlands in contradiction of its mitigation plan. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorized the company's filling and mitigation plan under Nationwide Perm...