A district court enjoined a timber harvest project in Lassen National Forest until the Forest Service conducts an adequate and sufficient review under NEPA. Environmental groups brought a lawsuit challenging the Forest Service's EA for the project. The group argued that the Service failed to ensure ...

The Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court order holding that a company substantially complied with a state's remediation plan for cleaning up PCB contamination at a hazardous waste site. The company's predecessor-in-interest operated an electrical transformer repair facility on the subject property,...

The Fourth Circuit reversed a lower court decision rejecting the U.S. Coast Guard's interpretation of its own regulations concerning the installation of double hulls on oil tankers overseas. Under U.S. law, a vessel becomes ineligible to participate in the coastwise trade if significant work is perf...

The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing a neighborhood association's APA action seeking to compel EPA's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to act on their complaint that a city failed to properly use EPA funds to address lingering environmental problems in low-income and ...

The Sixth Circuit affirmed, except with respect to the award of attorney fees, a lower court's approval of a settlement agreement concerning residents' class action lawsuit against a neighboring steel mill. The $4.45 million settlement distributed $300 to each covered member of the class, limited to...

The Alaska Supreme Court held that a proposed clean water initiative relating to the regulation of large-scale metallic mineral mines was constitutionally and statutorily permissible and was qualified to appear on a statewide 2008 election ballot. The initiative would not make a constitutionally imp...

The Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded a district court decision dismissing a Philippine island's action claiming that an American company polluted its waters. According to the complaint, Placer Dome severely polluted the lands and waters of Marinduque for some 30 years, caused two cataclysmic envi...

A California appellate court remanded in part a lower court decision denying a paint manufacturing association's petition challenging amendments to an air district rule limiting the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) allowed in various kinds of paints and coatings. The association argued th...

The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision in favor of the U.S. government on claims that it breached certain contracts between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and California water districts concerning Central Valley Project water resources. The lower court concl...

The Court of Federal Claims held that a livestock operator was collaterally estopped from litigating the issue of ownership to a right-of-way, thereby defeating its takings claim against the BLM for dismantling a water diversion structure on federal land and preventing the operator's access to the s...