In a Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) §505 citizen suit to enforce state and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits, the court holds that plaintiffs have standing, that plaintiffs' reliance on defendant's Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs) to establish current FWPCA vio...

The court holds that appellants were not denied substantive due process by congressional designation of their property as part of the Coastal Barrier Resources System (System) pursuant to the Coastal Barrier Resources Act. Appellants claim their Topsail Island, North Carolina, property does not fit ...

The court holds that the Maryland Vehicle Emissions Inspection Program is constitutional as applied in Carroll County. The court holds that there is little likelihood that plaintiff would prevail on its claim that the inspection program violates the Fourth Amendment. The public has no reasonable exp...

The court holds that environmental groups that won substantial relief in litigation to enforce a consent decree requiring the implementation of Pennsylvania's automobile emission inspection and maintenance (I/M) program are entitled to attorney fees and costs under Clean Air Act §304(d). The court ...

With a five-Justice majority, the Court rules that §301(l) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) does not bar issuance of fundamentally different factors (FDF) variances from pretreatment standards governing discharges of toxic pollutants from industry categories. The Court first notes...

The court holds that §6001 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act does not waive sovereign immunity to state criminal actions. In an action against the Veterans Administration arising under California law governing disposal of hazardous waste, the court first notes that a waiver of sovereign...

The court holds that a user of groundwater may be liable to neighboring property owners for unreasonable withdrawal of groundwater from a common aquifer. In so doing, the court overrules its 1861 holding adopting the "English rule" that a landowner has an absolute right to use groundwater under his ...

The court holds that planners of the I-35W and I-30 highway expansions in Fort Worth violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Department of Transportation (DOT) Act, and the Federal-Aid Highways Act (FAHA) when they transferred the "Overhead," a segment of the I-30 project, to the I-35W p...

The court rules that §106 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), which makes persons violating cleanup orders potentially liable for punitive damages, incorporates a good-faith exemption and does not violate due process.
The court rules that it lacks...

The court holds that the plaintiff's Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) response cost and natural resource damage claims are not barred and that the governor of Colorado properly authorized the state attorney general to bring the suit. The court first rule...