Newsletter Articles

Split Decision on Oregon’s New Temperature Water Quality Standards

April 10, 2012

A federal court in Oregon has partially upheld and partially rejected new numeric and narrative water quality standards for temperature adopted by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) and approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In Northwest Environmental Advocates v. More »

Local Bans on Hydraulic Fracturing Upheld in New York State, Struck Down in West Virginia

April 10, 2012

Attempts by local governments to ban hydraulic fracturing (commonly called “fracking”) have been met with mixed results in the courts. Recently, local bans have been upheld by two state trial courts in upstate New York; but struck down by a state court in Morgantown, West Virginia. More »

Supreme Court Reverses Montana High Court in Rent for Riverbeds Case

April 3, 2012

On February 22nd, a unanimous Supreme Court reversed the Montana Supreme Court’s ruling that required a hydroelectric dam operator to pay the State of Montana nearly $40 million in back rent for the use of state-owned riverbeds. In PPL Montana, LLC v. More »

Ski Areas Sue Forest Service Over Alleged Taking of Private Water Rights on Public Lands

April 3, 2012

The National Ski Areas Association (“Ski Areas”) has filed suit in a federal court in Colorado seeking to invalidate a water rights provision inserted into U.S. Forest Service (“Forest Service”) leases that ski areas assert would force them to transfer private water rights to the U.S. government. More »

Unanimous Supreme Court Tells EPA Its Orders Can Be Appealed

March 23, 2012

In a decision handed down on March 21, 2012, Justice Antonin Scalia found it easy to give Mike and Chantelle Sackett their day in court. Writing for a unanimous Supreme Court in the case of Sackett v. More »

Washington State Proposes Industrial Stormwater General Permit Modifications

March 23, 2012

Washington State is proposing controversial revisions to its Industrial Stormwater General Permit (ISGP) which could impact every permitted facility in the state.[1] The Department of Ecology (Ecology) is acting, in part, in response to a 2011 ruling from the state Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB). More »

Parties Seeking Contribution Under CERCLA May Not Bring a Simultaneous Cost Recovery Claim

March 19, 2012

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, joining a number of other federal appeals courts, recently held that a party seeking contribution under CERCLA section 113[1] may not simultaneously seek cost recovery under CERCLA section 107.[2] The decision came in the case of Solutia, Inc. More »

Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Ninth Circuit Decisions Show Why Meeting the Merits in NEPA Challenges May Be Better Than Fighting the Process

March 19, 2012

In what NEPA practitioners will likely view as a split decision, the Ninth Circuit finally ended seven years of procedural haggling as to whether certain claims had been properly presented, by ruling – on the merits – that snowmaking at an Arizona ski resort can proceed. Save the Peaks Coalition v. U.S. More »