A district court held that a mining company allowed excessive amounts of selenium to be discharged from one of its surface coal mine operations in violation of the CWA and SMCRA. The company's state permit does not explicitly impose selenium limitations, but it does incorporate by reference state re...
The South Carolina Supreme Court held that the operator of a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility failed to comply with state groundwater protection regulations and must therefore submit a written plan for compliance or face potential revocation of its operating license. The operator first ...
The D.C. Circuit upheld USDA regulations mandating the disclosure of country-of-origin information about meat products. A group of trade associations representing livestock producers, feedlot operators, and meat packers claimed that the rule violated their First Amendment rights because the mandate ...
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 Supreme Court of Iowa held that an Iowan who works for an environmental nonprofit group may sit on the state's Environmental Protection Commission and may vote to adopt rules which she actively supports both professionally and personally. The case arose after the commission adopted new water ant...
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-...
A New York court dismissed a lawsuit seeking to compel the state to finalize its supplemental EIS on hydraulic fracturing. The trustee to a bankrupt energy company filed the lawsuit, claiming that the company's bankruptcy and inability to develop its mineral rights stem from the state's failure to f...