The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacates a lower court's order, 8 ELR 20717, granting a mining company's motion under FED. R. CIV. P. 60(b)(5) for relief from a consent decree in an action to enforce discharge limitations in its national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit. The ...

In a suit by the United States seeking reimbursement for the costs of cleaning up an oil spill, the court holds that the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) provides a limitation on the amount of recovery, in the absence of willful negligence or misconduct, and precludes recovery in excess o...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a lower court's judgment, 5 ELR 20657, that a power supply contract for a proposed aluminum reduction plant is valid but unenforceable pending preparation by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) of an environmental impact statement (EIS) pursuant to th...

The Fifth Circuit affirms the district court's award of compensatory damages to plaintiffs for water pollution discharged from defendant's industrial plant but reverses the lower court's award of judgment notwithstanding the verdict to defendant on plaintiffs' additional claim for exemplary damages....

In a suit for compensatory and declaratory relief, the California Supreme Court holds that an owner of property that is reduced in value through enactment of a restrictive zoning ordinance may not, in an action for inverse condemnation, obtain damages from the municipality. Rather, the relief availa...

The court reverses the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) denial of petitioner's request for an adjudicatory hearing regarding the Agency's refusal to renew petitioner's national pollutant discharge elimination system permit. In requesting the hearing, petitioner claimed that its facility was...

The court affirms in part and reverses in part the decision of the district court, 7 ELR 20078, which granted summary judgment in favor of defendants on plaintiff's challenge to flood control projects in the Missouri River Basin. The district court is affirmed in its interpretation of the discretion...

The court affirms an order of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accepting the voluntary cancellation of a registration to produce the pesticide Mirex and to suspend hearings on the cancellation, ruling that under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (F...

The court upholds the lower court's issuance, 8 ELR 20807, of an injunction against construction of a reregulating dam on the Kootenai River below the Libby Dam, but lifts the injunction insofar as it restrains the addition of generating units to the latter dam. The court agrees with appellees that ...

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sets aside the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) designation of nonattainment areas in Alabama pursuant to §107(d) of the Clean Air Act after determining that the Agency failed to follow the procedures required by the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Al...