The court rules that the restart of a nuclear reactor at the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina is a major federal action requiring preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The court rules that the Department of Energy's (DOE's) c...

The Ninth Circuit holds that the National Audubon Society and other environmental organizations are entitled to intervene as of right on behalf of defendant-appellee, the Secretary of the Interior, in a suit challenging creation of the Snake River Birds of Prey Conservation Area. The court rules tha...

The court rules that a district attorney and relative of prisoners lack standing to challenge the adequacy of an environmental impact statement prepared under the Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act (WEPA) for a maximum security prison. The court notes that the Wisconsin standing test is similar to t...

In a suit by a municipal authority claiming improper state administration of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) construction grant program, the court dismisses all claims against the state defendants and dismisses one claim against the federal defendants. The court first rules that, alt...

The court rules that the port of Portland can recover from its two its two insurers the costs of cleaning up an oil slick caused when a port-owned dredge sank at its moorings. First, the court holds that damage to water resources is "property damage" as defined in St. Paul's policy and that the excl...

The Third Circuit affirms an order enjoining demolition of an historic building until the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) complies with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and §106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Appellants contended that NEPA did not ap...

The court rules that the provision in the 1978 amendments to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) that allows disclosure of previously protected trade information is constitutional, but the provision that provides for binding arbitration to set the compensation for that in...

The court holds that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) imposes strict liability, and where the harm is indivisible, joint and several liability, on waste generators. The court rules that by defining the standard of liability in CERCLA §107 in terms o...

The court rules that the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Clean Air Act vinyl chloride emission regulations are unenforceable because the regulations are work practice standards promulgated before the Act gave EPA the power to make such standards. The court holds that EPA acquired the power...

The court declines to rule that defendants in an imminent hazard abatement and response cost recovery action under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act are entitled to a jury trial but agrees to hear their case be...