A California appellate court affirmed a lower court judgment ordering a city to prepare an environmental impact report for a 120-unit senior housing facility, a 6,500 square-foot community senior center, and a four-acre public park. There is substantial evidence that the project's increase in popula...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision denying a property owner's petition challenging changes to a city's zoning rules. The city's general land use plan initially called for future annexation of certain property owned by the plaintiff. In 2004, the city council adopted a new p...

An Illinois appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that an excavation and demolition company violated the Illinois Environmental Protection Act when it disposed of whole trees in a quarry. In a previous case, the court found that leaves are not "of the same nature as garbage or sludge which...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision upholding amendments to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basin. Defendants presented sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Deer Creek does not support a viable population of rainbow trout and that t...

The First Circuit denied Massachusetts' petition for review of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) order denying its request to participate directly in a re-licensing proceeding of two nuclear energy plants as a "party" before the agency issues its renewal decision. Massachusetts argued that it mu...

An Illinois appellate court reversed and remanded a preliminary injunction enjoining a farmer from constructing or operating a hog farm on his property. Completion of the hog confinement building does not constitute the construction of a "new facility" under the Illinois Livestock Management Facilit...

A California appellate court held that an environmental group's claims against a county concerning certain trails are not time barred. The group claimed that the county board approved activities with respect to the proposed trails without the requisite environmental review under the California Envir...

A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's petition challenging a city's water supply assessment for a large-scale industrial/business park development. The adequacy of the assessment is properly challenged as a part of a challenge to an environmental impact report...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of state takings claims arising out of a state ban on open-pit mining for gold or silver by the cyanide heap leaching process. The plaintiffs, who prior to the ban had acquired leases of Montana state property for the purpose of mining gold, silver, and other t...

The Second Circuit remanded with directions to dismiss claims against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a former Agency administrator for misleading plaintiffs into believing that the air quality in lower Manhattan in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, was safe enough to permit th...