A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision denying agricultural water users' claim that an irrigation district violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it adopted regulations for the distribution of water in the event of an actual or potential water shortag...
A New Jersey appellate court held that two defendants in a state environmental cleanup suit may seek contribution from numerous third parties under the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act. The state's environmental agency filed environmental cleanup suits against nine business entities...
An Indiana appellate court reversed and remanded a lower court decision that an insurer need not defend and indemnify a service station owner in underlying state administrative proceedings concerning the environmental remediation of the site. The insurer argued that because the loss occurred pri...
A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision directing a county board to hear an administrative appeal of an environmental impact report (EIR) and permit for a landfill expansion project. A local environmental enforcement agency issued the permit after considering and certifying ...
A North Carolina appellate court held that the state's Sedimentation Pollution Control Act (SPCA) does not apply if there was no deposition of sediment to water. The owner of a golf course claimed that a construction company was liable under the SPCA for damages stemming from land-disturbing act...
A district court held that EPA violated the CWA when it failed to review Oregon's nonpoint source rules. The nonpoint source provisions create exemptions for many sources of pollution in Oregon's waters, including agriculture, forestry, and grazing. EPA claimed that the regulations at issue were...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of the U.S. government on claims challenging the DOI's accounting of approximately 9,000 acre feet of water released between June 17 and 24, 2004, from two reservoirs within California's Central Valley Project (...
A district court upheld the OSM's approval of amendments to West Virginia's federally approved SMCRA program that pertain to cumulative hydrologic impact assessments. The amendments delete the program's definition of “cumulative impact” and add a definition for “material damage to the ...
A New York court upheld a town's enactment of a zoning law that bans oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, within the geographical borders of the township. The holder of two gas leases argued that §23-0303 of New York's Environmental Conservation Law preempts the zoning law. The...
The Texas Supreme Court held that landowners have an ownership interest in the water beneath their property that cannot be taken for public use without adequate compensation under the Texas Constitution. The Texas courts have long held that landowners have ownership in oil and gas beneath their ...