The court rules that an appeal from a district court judgment in a citizen suit action under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act is mooted by completion of the action demanded below. The court observes that since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the offshore oil drilling nati...

The court rules that §505 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act authorizes citizen suits by persons with economic interests to enforce construction schedules in national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permits. In a suit by land developers to speed construction of new sewage tre...

The court rules that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) grants it nationwide service of process in a §106 abatement action, but that personal jurisdiction in a §104 cost recovery action is limited to that conferred by the long-arm statute of the stat...

The court rules that a cause of action in inverse condemnation is appropriate against a public entity even though that entity has no power to take by eminent domain, and that plaintiffs may treat airplane noise, smoke, and vibration as a continuing nuisance. In a suit brought by homeowners living ad...

The court holds that it has original and exclusive jurisdiction under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) over Tennessee's challenge to Department of Energy (DOE) procedures regarding potential monitored retrievable storage (MRS) sites in the state. After reviewing the statutory framework and contra...

The court rules that a judge hearing a civil penalty action under §113(b) of the Clean Air Act lacks authority to stay or enjoin a §120 civil penalty action for the same violation that is in progress before an administrative law judge. The court first notes that it lacks authority to stay a §120 ...

The court rules that the Pennsylvania Worker and Community Right-to-Know Act is preempted by the Occupational Safety and Health Agency's (OSHA's) hazard communication standard as to workplace hazard and labelling requirements for the manufacturing sector, but not as to environmental hazard requireme...

In a Federal Water Pollution Control Act §505 citizen suit to challenge a determination by the Corps of Engineers (Corps) that a tract of land in North Carolina was not a wetland under §404 and subject to a permit for dredge and fill operations, the court holds that the Corps' refusal to assert ju...

The court holds that Hawaii's coastal zone program, adopted pursuant to the Coastal Zone Management Act requires a county planning commission to determine whether a development project is consistent with the state Act's objectives before it issues a special management area permit. The court first re...

The court holds that mandamus compelling the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to adhere to an expedited timetable for issuing a workplace exposure standard for benzene is not appropriate prior to the conclusion of the rulemaking process. The court first declines to determine in a...