In a suit by the federal government against an owner-operator of a hazardous waste disposal site, the court holds that §7003(a) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) confers strict liability and that §104(a)(1)(A) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liabil...
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state of Indiana sign a consent decree with 24 companies who allegedly generated and/or caused to be transported solid and hazardous waste disposed of at the Seymour Recycling site, Indiana. The settling companies were defendants in a lawsuit brought...
The court approves, with minor modification, the proposed consent decree between the Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Indiana, and 24 companies that provides for the surface cleanup of the Seymour Recycling site in Indiana.The court finds that the decree is not only legal, but serves to...
The court approves a consent decree requiring the operator of MK Ranches to restore 8,000 acres of wetlands located in the Florida Gulf Coast Panhandle. The decree is in settlement of a lawsuit brought by the federal government alleging that defendants had violated §§301, 309, and 404 of the Feder...
The court holds that its has no jurisdiction pursuant to the citizen suit provision of the Clean Air Act, §304(a)(2), to compel the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to commence a §113 enforcement action against a source that is allegedly in violation of the state implementation plan (SIP). Th...
The court clarifies its April 1, 1982, injunction, 12 ELR 20658, requiring the Forest Service to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) concerning amendments to the plan for mining within the Misty Fjords National Monument in Alaska, and rejects intervenor-defendants U.S. Borax's motion to ...
The court rules that §113 of the Clean Air Act authorizes the United States to bring an enforcement action in its own name at the request of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The court first holds that §113(b) of the Act does not vest sole authority to bring such actions in the Administra...
The court, reversing in part the district court decision, 12 ELR 20040, invalidates Department of Commerce regulations that require tuna fishermen to carry inspectors on their boats as a condition to receiving Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) permits allowing the incidental taking of porpoises. T...
The Fifth Circuit denies petitions for rehearing of its ruling, 12 ELR 20994, that §311(g) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) does not bar the federal government's right under maritime tort law to recover oil spill cleanup costs from the owner or operator of a third-party vessel tha...
The Fifth Circuit, reversing in part the district court's decision, 12 ELR 20381, rules that the Corps of Engineers' environmental impact statement (EIS) for a deepwater port in Galveston, Texas, is inadequate and reverses the Corps' decision to grant construction permits. The court applies the Admi...