A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision denying a property owner's petition challenging changes to a city's zoning rules. The city's general land use plan initially called for future annexation of certain property owned by the plaintiff. In 2004, the city council adopted a new p...

The Tenth Circuit reversed a lower court's grant of attorneys fees in favor of an environmental group under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) despite its obtaining a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Forest Service halting an imminent timber sale in the Black Hills National Forest. A prel...

An Illinois appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that an excavation and demolition company violated the Illinois Environmental Protection Act when it disposed of whole trees in a quarry. In a previous case, the court found that leaves are not "of the same nature as garbage or sludge which...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision upholding amendments to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basin. Defendants presented sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Deer Creek does not support a viable population of rainbow trout and that t...

A district court denied a motion to dismiss claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and New York law for lack of evidence demonstrating defendant contributed waste to the site in question. Plaintiff's expert's professional experience and the me...

The First Circuit denied Massachusetts' petition for review of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) order denying its request to participate directly in a re-licensing proceeding of two nuclear energy plants as a "party" before the agency issues its renewal decision. Massachusetts argued that it mu...

An Illinois appellate court reversed and remanded a preliminary injunction enjoining a farmer from constructing or operating a hog farm on his property. Completion of the hog confinement building does not constitute the construction of a "new facility" under the Illinois Livestock Management Facilit...

A California appellate court held that an environmental group's claims against a county concerning certain trails are not time barred. The group claimed that the county board approved activities with respect to the proposed trails without the requisite environmental review under the California Envir...

The D.C. Circuit held that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, or residents' due process rights in its treatment of a hydroelectric project operator that violated its licen...

A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's petition challenging a city's water supply assessment for a large-scale industrial/business park development. The adequacy of the assessment is properly challenged as a part of a challenge to an environmental impact report...