The Ninth Circuit held that federal law preempts Washington State's Cleanup Priority Act, a statute enacted through the passage of a voter initiative. The Act was intended to "prevent the addition of new radioactive and hazardous waste" at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation site until cleanup of existi...

The Supreme Court of California reversed a lower court decision in favor of conservation groups challenging the state forestry department's approval of three timber harvest plans that allow logging on private land in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The department's selection of geographic areas for ass...

The Third Circuit dismissed New Jersey's petition for review of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) guidance document that proposes a long-term control license for facilities that decommission under restricted release regulations but cannot find adequate institutional controls. The guidance docume...

The Ninth Circuit held that a district court had the authority to order and enforce the pretrial disclosures of government witnesses and evidentiary documents in a pending criminal case concerning a mining operation in Libby, Montana. A district court, consistent with Rules 2 and 16 of the Federal R...

A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of a homeowners association's claim against the California Coastal Commission for requiring it to pay an in-lieu mitigation fee as a condition of a permit to build a seawall. The seawall would cause passive erosion that would eventually eliminate an ...

The Fifth Circuit dismissed as moot an environmental group's Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit against a city for violating its separate storm sewer system permit. The lower court dismissed the case on grounds that it was barred by res judicata. But because a consent decree in a prior U.S. Environm...

A Minnesota appellate court upheld a state environmental agency decision denying a mining company's request to eliminate the "control-city" standard from its air quality permit. The standard required the company to keep the asbestos fiber count in the air at its Silver Bay facility to the level ordi...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of a city sued for certifying environmental impact reports (EIRs) and approving development projects on over 6,800 acres of undeveloped land in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The c...

The First Circuit certified to the Massachusetts Supreme Court questions concerning the allocation of liability in a dispute over the extent of insurance coverage owed for a gas company's strict liability for environmental cleanup costs at a former manufactured gas plant. At trial, the jury awarded ...

A Louisiana appellate court held that state law allows the state's environmental agency to be held liable for personal injury and property damages when a permittee has contaminated its neighbors' property and the agency knew about the toxic contamination but failed to properly regulate the permittee...