A district court held that environmental and animal rights groups may challenge the constitutionality of two trespass statutes passed by the Wyoming legislature in 2015. Under the statutes—one imposing criminal liability and the other imposing civil—a person will be held liable if he or she: (1)...

A New Jersey appellate court, in an unpublished opinion, reversed and remanded portions of a lower court summary judgment against a corporation, its principal, and a general partnership for costs related to remediation of the site of a former thermometer manufacturing plant. The corporation and the ...

A district court dismissed homeowners' CERCLA, RCRA, and state-law claims against the former owners and operators of a manufacturing plant for alleged well-water contamination. The court dismissed the CERCLA claims because the homeowners failed to allege that they incurred any recoverable response c...

The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, held that environmental groups have standing to bring a RCRA citizen suit against the U.S. Forest Service for failing to regulate the disposal of spent lead ammunition in the Kaibab National Forest. The groups allege that the Forest Service's failure to ...

The Second Circuit, in a summary order, upheld a coke company's convictions for RCRA violations at its facility near Buffalo, New York. The company claimed the RCRA convictions should be reversed because it lacked fair notice that its conduct was criminal. But it failed to raise this argument below....

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that a natural gas company charged with violating the state's Clean Streams Law may seek preenforcement judicial review of the state environmental agency's interpretation of the statute's penalty provisions. The agency, which has assessed ongoing, multimillion dol...

A New York appellate court upheld a lower court decision invalidating a water sales agreement that would have allowed a town to sell approximately one million gallons per day from its water supply to an energy company for drilling and hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania. Despite the town's conclusi...

The California Supreme Court held that agencies subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) generally are not required to analyze the impact of existing environmental conditions on a project's future users or residents. But when a proposed project risks exacerbating those environmenta...

A district court granted in part and denied in part cross-motions for summary judgment in a dispute between a Native American tribe and the state of Maine concerning the tribe's regulatory jurisdiction and fishing rights along the main stem of the Penobscot River. The court agreed with the tribe tha...

A California appellate court, in an unpublished opinion, held that the California Department of Food and Agriculture's environmental impact report (EIR) for a seven-year program to control the light brown apple moth, an invasive pest, violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The age...