A California court held that the public trust doctrine protects navigable waterways from harm caused by groundwater extraction. Concerned about the management of the Scott River in northern California, environmental groups filed suit against Siskiyou County, claiming the county must consider the pub...

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying an environmental group's motion to intervene in a poultry farmer's lawsuit against EPA. In that case, the farmer seeks a declaratory judgment that farmyard stormwater runoff is statutorily exempt from regulation as an agricultural stormwater...

A district court upheld a CWA §404 permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of a large marine transfer station near the upper east side of New York City. A group of residents filed suit challenging the permit, claiming that the Corps' issuance of the permit was arbitra...

An Illinois appellate court upheld a state plan requiring state utilities to purchase power from a coal-fueled, near-zero emissions electric power plant. State utilities challenged the plan, arguing that the Illinois Power Agency has no power to propose, and the Illinois Commerce Commission has no p...

A New York court dismissed mineral rights owners' lawsuit seeking to compel the state to finalize its supplemental EIS on hydraulic fracturing. The owners filed the lawsuit under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), claiming that the state's failure to finalize the standards for high-...