A court grants in part and denies in part motions to dismiss land purchasers' Comprehensive, Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), negligence, fraud, and state-law claims against an environmental consulting firm and the prior owners. The prior owners sold the land without...

A court holds that a timber company's procurement of a general permit for stormwater discharges stemming from its logging activities in Bear Creek, California, does not render an environmental group's Clean Water Act action against the company moot. The timber company failed to meet its burden to pr...

A court holds that a county did not effect a physical or regulatory taking when it imposed conditions on a landowner's permit to activate a well on its property. The conditional use permit limited the landowner from extracting no more than 12,000 acre/feet per year of water from the aquifer underlyi...

The court holds that a developer was not denied due process in connection with a local land use commission's hearing on his application for a coastal development permit. The developer claimed that telephone conversations with staff led him to believe that he did not need to appear at the hearing. Bu...

The court upholds a lower court decision that the United States has no obligation to reimburse a Florida county for the costs it incurred treating soil and groundwater contamination at the Miami International Air Depot. From 1943 to 1966, the U.S. government maintained and repaired U.S. Air Force ai...

The court upholds the dismissal of local water agencies' claims that the Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) was operating the Central Valley Project (CVP) in a manner that would at some point in the future violate the Vernalis salinity standard, a state standard with which the Bureau must comply in its ...

The court affirms a lower court decision that under California law, an insurance company need not provide coverage for the costs property owners incurred responding to suspected soil and groundwater pollution. A state agency ordered the property owners to test their property after they were suspecte...

The court holds that the state water control board did not err in ordering a water company to obtain a permit to pump groundwater from two wells near the North Fork Gualala River. The board has permitting jurisdiction over "subterranean streams flowing through known and definite channels." The board...

The court reverses a lower court's denial of qualified immunity to conservation officers in an individual's 42 U.S.C. §1983 case against them for malicious prosecution and unlawful retaliation. Because a jury found the individual guilty for wanton endangerment, he cannot show the absence of pro...

The court rejects a real estate investor's claim for a charitable tax deduction stemming from a conservation easement he created on land sold to a developer. The investor claims that the easement permanently reduced the number of homes that could be built on the land from 62 to 30. But half of the l...