The court holds that the New Jersey Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act (ECRA) applies prospectively only and a commercial taxpayer is not entitled to a reduction in the assessed value of a property based upon the costs of cleaning up hazardous waste on the property pursuant to ECRA's requireme...

The court holds that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) preempts Montgomery County, Maryland, regulations requiring commercial pesticide applicators to post sprayed areas and provide notification of pesticide hazards because FIFRA allows only states and not subdivisions ...

The court allows a bankruptcy trustee to abandon a contaminated hazardous waste site where the estate's assets are insufficient to decontaminate the site and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not oppose the abandonment and proposes to take remedial action itself. The court grants EPA ac...

The court holds that Hawaii's maintenance of mouflon sheep in the critical habitat of an endangered species constitutes a taking under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The court first rules that the definition of harm in the ESA prohibits activities that significantly modify or degrade a habitat re...

The court rules that reclamation fees under §402(a) of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) may be assessed on coal mined prior to SMCRA's enactment where the economic benefit has been derived after SMCRA's effective date. Therefore, a coal company may be assessed fees on coal min...

The court holds that 22 mining claims within the Grand Canyon National Game Preserve held pursuant to the Mining Law of 1872 were void ab initio and withdrawn from mineral entry when the game preserve was created. The court holds that because the law creating the preserve does not directly address t...

The court holds that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (DEM) must amend its procedures for issuing coastal construction permits to provide notice of final actions to the same extent it provides notice of pending applications. DEM publishes notice of pending applications in local new...

The court rules on the United States' motion for early determination of special legal questions in its action under §107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to recover the costs of cleaning up an abandoned drum recycling facility. The court initiall...

The court holds that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reasonably exercised its discretion in denying Ohio leave to intervene in licensing proceedings for the Perry Nuclear Power Plant, denying a citizen group's motion to reopen the record in the licensing proceedings, and authorizing the plan...

The court holds that the district court improperly allowed the violator of a Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit to assert an upset defense, the FWPCA does not provide for a de minimis exception, and sampling error in one's disch...