A California appellate court affirmed the denial of a petition for review of a city's certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) and approval of a conditional use permit for the construction of a large food store. The city council approved the EIR after adding additional information to th...

The Seventh Circuit upheld an injunction, at the behest of EPA under the authority of RCRA, requiring an oil company to clean up a contaminated site in Hartford, Illinois. The lower court determined that millions of gallons of oil, composing a "hydrocarbon plume" trapped not far underground, are con...

A district court rejected claims that the U.S. Army violated NEPA by failing to provide a supplemental analysis reflecting new alternative destruction technologies that could be used in lieu of on-site incineration at four chemical weapon incineration facilities. For the four challenged sites, the A...

A district court denied a religious congregation's motion for a preliminary injunction under RCRA ordering the former owner of a gas station to clean up contamination beneath their church. In early April 2006, a gasoline spill occurred at the gas station and migrated to the church, the basement of w...

The Ninth Circuit held that BLM failed to take a "hard look" at the environmental consequences of a proposed land exchange between the agency and a mining company in violation of NEPA. The land exchange would transfer ownership of certain BLM property to a mining company, thereby allowing the compan...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing water districts' and other entities' claims against an Oklahoma agency and the United States in a dispute over water rights stemming from the Grand River. The plaintiffs sought a declaration regarding their interests in the Grand River wat...

A district court held that under Florida law, a pollution exclusion contained in a swimming pool's insurance policy unambiguously applies to harmful microbes allegedly present in the pool. As defined under the plain language of the policy, the term pollutant includes contaminant. Because the record ...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing claims for alleged radiation injuries to residents of Uravan, Colorado, a former uranium and vanadium milling town owned and operated by two mining companies. The residents asserted claims for personal injury based on disease or death alle...

Maine's highest court upheld the conviction entered against an individual hired to remove contamination stemming from an oil spill after a large piece of logging equipment caught on fire. Instead of cleaning up the site, the individual merely removed some of the contaminated soil and dumped it at a ...

The Second Circuit held that DOE's EIS concerning waste management activities at a nuclear service center near Buffalo, New York, complied with NEPA and with the terms of a 1987 settlement agreement between the agency and an environmental group. The EIS addressed only short-term, waste management ac...