The Eleventh Circuit vacated a lower court decision remanding a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back to the agency and enjoining a mining company from conducting operations approved in that permit. The lower court concluded the permit's issuance did not comply with the requirements...

The Federal Circuit upheld the dismissal of a Native American tribe's Tucker Act claim against the United States for an alleged breach of fiduciary duty relating to water rights in the Gila River. A consent decree establishing water rights among the tribe and landowners along the river was ente...

The D.C. Circuit denied a Native American tribe's petition challenging FERC's decision declining to impose conditions on a utility's annual licenses for a hydroelectric plant in order to preserve the Klamath River's trout fishery. Contrary to the tribe’s argument, FERC quite plainly articulated an...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that a Native American tribe's suit against federal officials in district court seeking equitable relief for their alleged breach of fiduciary duty precludes jurisdiction over the tribe's suit against the United States for monetary damages in the Court of Federal Cla...

Massachusetts' highest court vacated a nuclear power company's action seeking a judgment declaring that state regulations governing cooling water intake structures (CWIS) exceeded the state environmental agency's authority under the commonwealth's Clean Waters Act. A lower court ruled that the ...

The Michigan Supreme Court vacated its previous decision at 41 ELR 20056 in which it held that a company's plan to discharge contaminated water from an environmental cleanup site in the Manistee River watershed into a previously unpolluted site in the AuSable River watershed was manife...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision dismissing petitioners' action to compel the state health department to prepare and submit a safe drinking water plan to the state legislature as required by state law. The department argued before the trial court that the statutory m...

A California appellate court held that a city did not violate the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it approved an affordable housing project. In approving the project, the city concluded that the project satisfied the categorical exemption for in-fill development projects. Altho...

A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of a petition challenging a city's environmental impact report (EIR) for and approval of a park project. An environmental group argued that the EIR failed to adequately analyze construction-related water quality impacts, the impact of using trea...

A district court granted the United States' motion to dismiss a Native American tribe's claims against it in connection with the government's remediation of a former uranium mill located on the Navajo Nation Reservation near Tuba City, Arizona. In 1985, the DOE and the tribe entered into a coop...