The court reverses a municipal zoning board's denial of homeowners' request for a zoning variance to allow installation of a rooftop solar collector. The section of the town zoning ordinance upon which the board relied, when strictly construed, does not apply to the installation of solar collectors....

The Second Circuit denies the federal government's petition for rehearing in a case in which it previously held, 12 ELR 20119, that the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) preempts the government's right under common law, maritime law, or the Rivers and Harbors Act to recover costs expended ...

The court approves a settlement in which the federal government agrees that §114(c) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) does not preclude the state of New Jersey from using its Spill Compensation Fund to finance hazardous waste cleanup and compensat...

The court extends for a period of 15 days the public comment period and final deadline for promulgation of the revised National Contingency Plan (NCP) required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. Originally, on February 12, 1982, the court ordered the Enviro...

The Ninth Circuit upholds appellees' determination that a conversion in funding for Boise, Idaho, does not require preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS). In 1971, appellees found that the project, which was being financed with urban renewal loan and grant funds, would have no signif...

The court upholds the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) veto of a state-issued variance from the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) effluent limitations for a segment of the pulp and paper industry. The state of Washington granted petitioner's request for a variance from the best pr...

The district court rules that defendants discharged fill material into a wetland adjacent to a navigable waterway without an Army Corps of Engineers permit in violation of §404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. A magistrate had dismissed the case after finding that the filled area, althou...

The district court upholds the California Coastal Commission's imposition of and method of enforcing coastal development permit conditions. Plaintiffs, individual lot owners and members of a residential development association, contended that two of the six conditions attached to their development p...

The court awards attorney fees in a case in which it previously, 11 ELR 20635, upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) issuance of a prevention of significant deterioration permit under the Clean Air Act. The 14-day deadline set forth in Rule 39 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedu...

The court invalidates a Lakewood, Colorado, billboard ordinance on First Amendment and equal protection grounds. Initially, it rules that appellees, owners and users of commercial signs, lack standing to challenge the Lakewood Sign Code's definition of "sign," in the context of its time, place, mann...