The court holds that developers, alleging that the Corps of Engineers' refusal to issue a permit to fill wetlands constituted a taking, have shown that their private interest in developing their land outweighs the governmental interest in preserving wetlands, but the court refuses to find a taking b...

The court holds that the United States has established probable cause that a wildlife importer violated the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the innocent owner defense is not available in forfeiture actions under the Lacey Act. The United States sought to forfeit a shipment of can...

The court holds that the seller of a trucking company is not required by its sales agreement to indemnify the buyer for its potential liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Recovery Act arising out of dioxin contamination of the trucking company's terminal. The i...

The court holds that a landowner's construction of a fence on private land, enclosing an area of the public domain and preventing pronghorn antelope from reaching their winter range, violates the Unlawful Inclosures of Public Lands Act (UIA). The court first holds that the district court's order req...

The court holds that the Federal Water Pollution Control Act's (FWPCA's) sovereign immunity waiver, §313, applies only to objective and administratively pre-established water pollution control standards. The court first holds that past use of treated wastewater in the McClellan Air Force Base cooli...

The court issues a preliminary injunction requiring a public water system charged with violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act to notify customers of its violations of the maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for microbiological contaminants and turbidity, and to follow a schedule to supply potable w...

The court holds that a county water district is a public water system under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and that the government has shown that the water system may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health under SDWA §1431. The court first holds that defendant qualifie...

The court holds that the operator of a metal finishing facility is liable for violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's (RCRA's) loss of interim status (LOIS) provisions and for violations of an administrative consent decree entered into with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA...

The court holds that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) regulation allowing the agency, in evaluating a utility emergency plan, to presume that in an emergency state and local officials will attempt to protect the public and will generally follow the utility plan, is not arbitrary or capric...

The court upholds the award of compensatory and punitive damages for tort claims based on salt contamination of irrigation water supplies. Farmers claimed that a neighboring salt manufacturing plant had added excessive levels of salt to the groundwater used by the farmers for irrigation. The court f...