A court holds that a city did not unlawfully surrender its police power or improperly amend its general plan by entering into a settlement agreement to resolve environmental litigation brought against it. The case arose after the city council, in light of the settlement agreement, voted to approve a...

The court holds that the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002 preempts a city's regulatory efforts to provide safety oversight of a hazardous liquid pipeline within city boundaries. After a section of a hazardous liquid pipeline exploded in Seattle, Washington, the city refused to renew the pipel...

A court upholds the dismissal of an individual's claims against a state agency and corporations for failing to provide convenient, economical, and efficient beverage container redemption opportunities as required by the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act. The lower cour...

A court partially grants the U.S. motion to collaterally estop defendants from denying their liability as owners and operators of the Armour Road Superfund site in North Kansas City, Missouri. Except for one of the defendants, prior actions against the defendants were final, or sufficiently final, t...

A court partially grants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) and individuals' motions to dismiss a class action suit stemming from plaintiffs' exposure to hazardous substances in the interior of their residences, schools, and workplaces as a result of the dust and debris released from...

A court affirms, modifies, and reverses a lower court's judgments in seven coordinated cases involving the California State Water Resource Control Board's (Board's) implementation of a water quality plan in a water rights proceeding, a related environmental impact report, a joint points of diversion...

The court holds that municipal flow control ordinances do not violate the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The municipal scheme at issue requires that the garbage generated by local households and businesses be delivered to facilities that are owned and operated by a public corporat...

The court upholds a lower court decision denying a nonprofit group's petition for writ of mandate and claim for declaratory relief in a case challenging a state pesticide department's decision to renew a number of pesticide registrations for 2002. The department’s procedure of renewing pestici...

The court affirms the denial of the Quapaw Indian Tribe's motion to dismiss companies' counterclaims against it in a suit alleging that the companies and their predecessors-in-interest caused environmental contamination on tribal lands due to mining activities in the 1900s. Because a tribe waives it...

A court holds that under former California Food and Agricultural Code §12811.5, the state pesticides department may not actively or passively consider data submitted by an original registrant when considering a subsequent application for registration by another applicant who does not have the o...