The court holds that a dissolved Ohio corporation and its shareholder distributee cannot be held liable for response costs under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107 nine years after dissolution and asset distribution. In 1976, Angell Manufactuing Co. ...
The court rules that irreparable harm cannot be presumed in suits seeking injunctive relief under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) once violations of the Act have been established. The court holds that the district court abused its discretion by presuming irreparable harm and not expl...
The court holds that the federal government's sovereign immunity from civil penalties is waived under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act's (FWPCA's) sovereign immunity provision, §313, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's (RCRA's) citizen suit provision, §7002, though not RCRA's s...
The Court holds that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not required to act on a proposed state implementation plan (SIP) revision within four months and is not barred from enforcing the existing SIP if it does not act on the proposal within a reasonable time. The Court first rules that th...
The Court holds that an environmental organization lacks standing to challenge the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) decision to lift protective restrictions on 180 million acres of public land. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) alleged that BLM illegally opened public lands to commercial dev...
The court holds that the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) regulations under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) governing placer mining are within the Agency's mandate from Congress and are not arbitrary or capricious. EPA promulgated regulations for placer mining that set "best...
The court approves settlements in a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) contribution action between defendants in a government CERCLA action and 26 third-party defendants that contributed a small share of waste at the site. Third-party plaintiffs moved for ...
The court holds that state law, rather than the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), governs issuance of national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permits under state permit programs. Plaintiffs brought a citizen suit under FWPCA §505, seeking a declaration that state official...
The court holds that a state's issuance of a national pollutant discharge elimination system permit under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) cannot be challenged under the Supremacy Clause in federal district court. The court holds that the Supremacy Clause is inoperative, since plainti...
The court holds that the Supremacy Clause does not grant an implied cause of action for review of state-issued national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permits that contain effluent limits less stringent than those required under federal law. The Alabama Department of Environmental Ma...