The Supreme Court of South Dakota held that a town had the power to waive the distance requirements set forth in a county ordinance regulating the location of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Several residents filed suit challenging the town's power to execute such a waiver. They argu...

A district court dismissed Oklahoma's claims for monetary damages against poultry companies for injury caused to the Illinois River watershed stemming from the their storage and disposal of poultry waste. The state failed to join the Cherokee Nation as a required party. The Cherokee Nation possesses...

The D.C. Circuit held that DOI, which breached its fiduciary duties to Individual Indian Money trust account beneficiaries, must conduct an accurate accounting of those funds. The district court correctly held that the DOI breached its duty and that the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform A...

The Ninth Circuit denied a petition for review of the NRC's refusal to include the threat of air attacks in its revised "design basis threat" rule, initially promulgated to protect nuclear power reactors from industrial sabotage. In March 2007, NRC revised the rule to increase the range of threats i...

The Tenth Circuit held that the owner of an underground coal mine may intervene in an environmental group's NEPA action concerning the U.S. Forest Service's approval of venting of methane gas from a mine. The lower court denied the motion, finding that the owner failed to show either that the govern...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision setting aside the U.S. Forest Service's State Petitions Rule and reinstating the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, more commonly known as the "Roadless Rule," pending the Service's compliance with NEPA and the ESA. The State Petitions Rule, issued in ...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision declining a water user association's request for a declaration that it has well-defined rights to develop power in the Diamond Fork System of the Central Utah Project and instead declaring that the association, the United States, and the local water ...

A New Jersey appellate court affirmed a lower court decision holding the seller of industrial property strictly liable under the New Jersey Industrial Site Recovery Act for all cleanup costs and damages stemming from its failure to obtain a "no further action" letter before selling the property to t...

The Seventh Circuit held that an environmental group lacks standing in their action against several government agencies for allowing the discharge of bullets into Lake Michigan at a U.S.-operated gun range. The group alleged that the deterioration of the lead bullets in the water harmed the environm...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision holding moot certain parts of a 1975 injunction regulating air emissions from a mining company's taconite pellet operation in Silver Bay, Minnesota. The lower court held that since portions of the injunction had been effectively incorporated into st...