566 results for 'cat:"Environment"'.
J. Winmill finds that the Bureau of Land Management failed to adequately look at the impact of a new open-pit phosphate mine project on the sage-grouse. Environmental groups challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision which approved a new open-pit phosphate mine. The Record of Decision is vacated.
Court: USDC Idaho, Judge: Winmill, Filed On: June 2, 2023, Case #: 4:21cv182, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment
[Consolidated.][Modified.] J. Bendix modifies a previously published opinion to clarify the extent of a regional water quality board's authority to regulate the unreasonable use of water. The trial court properly held that a regional water quality board lacked the authority to compel publicly-owned treatment facilities to recycle more of the wastewater they discharge into the Los Angeles River. The regional board is tasked with ensuring water quality, not reasonable use. But the trial court erred in directing the state water quality board to evaluate whether the discharges were reasonable and to provide the trial court with facts it could review. The state board has wide discretion over how it evaluates whether water use is reasonable, and the trial court erred in denying its demurrer. Reversed in part.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Bendix, Filed On: June 2, 2023, Case #: B309151, Categories: environment, Water
J. Stegall finds a lower court improperly ruled in favor of an environmental group concerning the expansion of a swine facility. The environmental group argued that the State's department of health and environment wrongfully granted the swine farm's application for permits to expand the facility, even though the two facilities were not legally "separate facilities." However, the environmental department's claims are rendered moot after the swine facility removed a shared property line and obtained new permits to run both facilities. Reversed.
Court: Kansas Supreme Court, Judge: Stegall, Filed On: June 2, 2023, Case #: 123,023, Categories: Agriculture, environment, Property
J. Aiken finds that young climate activists can amend their lawsuit accusing the government of subjecting them and future generations to the devastating effects of climate change. The declaratory relief the youths seek – a declaration that the federal government’s energy policies violate the youths’ constitutional rights to substantive due process and equal protection of the law – “is squarely within the constitutional and statutory power of Article III courts to grant.”
Court: USDC Oregon, Judge: Aiken, Filed On: June 1, 2023, Case #: 6:15cv1517, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, environment, Government
J. Branch finds that the district court properly dismissed the nonprofit's action against the county alleging that it failed to follow a consent decree and violated the Clean Water Act by repeatedly spilling wastewater, including untreated sewage, into surface waters. The district court correctly found that the action was impermissible under the diligent prosecution bar. The EPA and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources have been diligent in continuing to monitor the county's progress and in penalizing it for noncompliance with the consent decree. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Branch, Filed On: May 31, 2023, Case #: 20-13651, Categories: environment
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J. Lasnik denies the zoo's motion to exclude the animal law advocacy organization's expert, Dr. Valerie Johnson, from testifying in the organization's lawsuit alleging that the zoo violated the Endangered Species Act by possessing and improperly caring for endangered species. Dr. Johnson is qualified to provide her opinion that the care of wolf pups taken from their mothers was inadequate because her prognosis of the wolf pups was based on data and within her expertise as a veterinarian.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Lasnik, Filed On: May 30, 2023, Case #: 3:18cv6025, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Experts, Animal Cruelty
J. Christensen finds in partial favor of the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics’ in their lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for discharging aerially deployed fire retardant, on nearly 500 occasions between 2012 and 2019, into U.S. waters without a permit. The Forest Service is not enjoined from using aerial deployment of fire retardant to fight wildfires, but its discharges are still in violation of the Clean Water Act. The Forest Service is ordered to update the court every six months as it works towards obtaining the proper permit.
Court: USDC Montana, Judge: Christensen, Filed On: May 26, 2023, Case #: 9:22cv168, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Water, Agency
J. Morgan grants requests by neighbors of a parish landfill for disclosure of the private operators’ redacted information about other dumps they operated. The litigants say the landfill operator’s financial and operational information will provide them with evidence of the companies’ knowledge of environmental risks associated with accepting certain types of waste. The landfill operators unsuccessfully argued disclosure of their financial information and operations at other dump sites would have the unfair effect of “inflaming” the jury. The neighbors’ request for the information is proper.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morga, Filed On: May 26, 2023, Case #: 2:18cv7889, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: environment, Damages, Discovery
J. Friedland dismisses an appeal challenging the district court's denial of a motion from various organizations to intervene as defendants in a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management challenging the grant of two rights-of-way. The first concerned the right to use an existing natural gas pipeline and the second to use that pipeline to transport water across federal lands in California. While the appeal was pending, the district court held that the decision to grant the rights-of-way was arbitrary.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Friedland, Filed On: May 26, 2023, Case #: 22-55317, Categories: environment, Water
J. Orme finds the department properly issued a final order affirming permit modification approval for the landfill operator’s relocation of a landfill cell which the lake advocacy group says its groundwater monitoring system would be insufficient to detect leakage to the Great Salt Lake. After the advocacy group requested review, the department appointed an administrative law judge, who held that the department “did not err in determining that the bedrock beneath the landfill is cemented and [that] there is no hydraulic connection between the shallow aquifer and bedrock.” The advocacy group has not demonstrated that its alleged errors resulted in prejudice. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Orme, Filed On: May 26, 2023, Case #: 20210589-CA, Categories: Administrative Law, environment
[Consolidated.] J. Srinivasan grants, in part, Sierra Club's petition for review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline project. The commission must prepare an environmental impact statement pertaining to potential erosion caused by the project or better explain why one is not needed, but the project can move forward during the interim, as it is almost complete and completion may solve the project's impact on the soil.
Court: DC Circuit, Judge: Srinivasan, Filed On: May 25, 2023, Case #: 20-1512 , Categories: Energy, environment
J. Summerhays grants remand to the joint owners of a 35-acre tract in rural Church Point, Louisiana, transferring to state court their environmental property damage suit against Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), Chevron-owned companies and Hess Corp. The corporations unsuccessfully argued for federal jurisdiction on grounds that ARCO, a Texas citizen, was improperly added to the suit by the property owners, a Louisiana woman and a Texas corporation based in Louisiana. The landowners prevailed by showing that the terms of a 1953 operating agreement “explicitly” provide that the sued companies, including ARCO, are proportionately liable for damages to related to their oil and gas operations. The landowners have stated “a viable claim against ARCO, even if they do not ultimately prevail.”
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: May 25, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv6190, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: environment, Damages, Jurisdiction
J. Alito finds that the circuit improperly ruled in claims between property owners and the EPA because the clean water act applies only if wetlands blend or flow into neighboring water that constitutes a channel for interstate commerce. Reversed.
Court: US Supreme Court, Judge: Alito, Filed On: May 25, 2023, Case #: 21-454, Categories: Commerce, environment, Property
J. Matheson finds that the lower court improperly dismissed claims from environmental groups that sought to challenge the Upper Green River Area Rangeland project in Wyoming, alleging that the Forest Service did not properly consider how the project could influence grizzly bear populations, migratory birds and local fish. The record shows that the biological opinion from the Forest Service did not fully consider a limit on the lethal take of female grizzlies or look deep enough into how the project would contribute to their mortality sink rate. The matter is sent back to the government to address these shortcomings. Reversed in part.
Court: 10th Circuit, Judge: Matheson, Filed On: May 25, 2023, Case #: 22-8031, Categories: environment, Agency
J. Urias remands to state court a lawsuit between representatives of a ranch and neighbors which the ranch alleges have failed to “properly maintain” oil and gas facilities, damaging the land. Those neighbors, the defendants in this case, were properly joined because they all conducted oil and gas operations nearby and were linked by a “common ‘series of occurrences,’” removing the “diversity jurisdiction” that would have allowed this court to hear this case.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: May 24, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv515, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: environment, Tort, Jurisdiction
J. Joseph denies a request by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and dismisses, on jurisdictional grounds, a suit by two Louisiana investors in a venture seeking a mining permit for what may be “the largest gold discovery ever made” in Alaska’s northwest Seward Peninsula. Because the Corps has yet to rule on the investors’ appeal of an initial permit denial, these is “not yet a final decision” by the agency for judicial review, notwithstanding the investors’ argument that the Corps’ appeal process is an “injurious waste of time.” The ruling also notes that “the Corps’ apparent misunderstanding of its own regulations is concerning.”
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: Joseph, Filed On: May 22, 2023, Case #: 6:23cv114, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Agency, Jurisdiction
J. Jenkins finds that the trial court should not have awarded attorney fees and costs to a landowner on a claim for environmental and private damages after the oil company entered a limited admission of liability as to three of the four tracts of land. The landowner should not have been awarded fees and costs for work performed in pursuit of its unsuccessful private damages claims at trial and for work outside the scope of Act 312. The date the trial began through the last date included in the submitted billing records must be excluded from the total award. Reversed in part.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Jenkins , Filed On: May 22, 2023, Case #: 2022-CA-0383, Categories: environment, Attorney Fees, Contract
[Consolidated.] J. Pritzker finds that the lower court properly denied a preliminary injunction to block implementation of new regulations on siting renewable energy plants with an eye toward speeding up the review process. The regulations, rooted in zero emissions climate goals, were challenged by localities on home rule grounds, but the state legislature may preempt local laws on matters of state concern, which encompass energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, the agency put in charge of the regulations took a hard look at potential environmental impacts before authorizing them. Affirmed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Pritzker, Filed On: May 18, 2023, Case #: 534318, Categories: Administrative Law, Energy, environment
J. Block denies a self-represented litigant’s claim seeking a preliminary injunction to halt the construction of an offshore wind farm near the coast of South Fork, Long Island. Her complaint fails to show the planned excavation work on the onshore portion of the project will disrupt the existing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances present in the ground or that the offshore facilities will impact the Atlantic cod population and ultimately increase prices on fish supplies.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Block, Filed On: May 18, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv295, NOS: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) - Other Suits, Categories: Energy, environment