168 results for 'cat:"Water"'.
J. Morris denies a motion for a preliminary injunction against the owner of a golf course after an environmental group claimed there were ponds on the course that were being improperly filled with reclaimed water, among other claims of improper water usage. The group is not likely to succeed on the merits of its case, largely due to the fact that it has not been able to show that the ponds constitute "point sources" that discharge pollutants. Without any more specifics that would bolster the case, the group has not met the high bar of justifying a preliminary injunction.
Court: USDC Montana, Judge: Morris, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv26, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, water, Injunction
J. Ives finds the lower court properly granted the motion for summary judgment filed by the governing body of the acequia water system. Its application of two statutory schemes for water distribution - one for irrigation and one for retrieval from a ditch - is compatible with New Mexico law and affords proper water rights to the landowners. Affirmed.
Court: New Mexico Court of Appeals, Judge: Ives, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: A-1-CA-40325, Categories: Property, water
J. Adams denies the city's motion to alter its consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency, ruling that while its proposed amendment to allow overflow of 100 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Cuyahoga Valley National Park is significantly less than the amount of overflow at the time the decree was established, it does not amount to a de minimis impact on the watershed and surrounding area. Additionally, the increase in treatment costs from $56 million to $209 million is not a significant change in circumstances that allows for an adjustment in the consent decree because the city provided no evidence to explain the cost increase and relied on outdated treatment data when it submitted cost predictions.
Court: USDC Northern District of Ohio, Judge: Adams, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 5:09cv272, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Evidence, water
J. Lipinsky finds the lower court properly dismissed the well owners' complaint for lack of jurisdiction. The issues presented by the owners, including interpretation of water use guidelines and an order to vacate the state engineer's decision, were water matters that must decided by a water court. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Court Of Appeals, Judge: Lipinsky, Filed On: February 29, 2024, Case #: 2024COA23, Categories: water, Jurisdiction
J. Luthy finds the district court improperly dismissed this contract dispute between a construction company and water supplier. The water supplier filed a lawsuit alleging the construction company connected to its water supply without paying membership fees or seeking permission. The construction firm then sued for fraud and breach of contract. The court erred when they concluded the remedy was for a “party’s failure to file a compulsory counterclaim” when the lawsuit was dismissed. Reversed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Luthy, Filed On: February 23, 2024, Case #: 20220565-CA, Categories: Civil Procedure, Property, water
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J. Seller finds the lower court correctly ruled when denying a citizen's open records request for immediate access to settlement agreements between the city and carpet/chemical manufacturers regarding pollution of the municipality’s water with PFAS, i.e. “forever chemicals.” There is currently bidding regarding a new water-treatment facility, so it is not in the public's best interest to disclose the settlements before the completion of the competitive-bid process. Affirmed.
Court: Alabama Supreme Court, Judge: Sellers, Filed On: February 23, 2024, Case #: SC-2023-0530, Categories: Public Record, water, Business Practices
J. Coughenour grants partial summary judgment to the tribe for its complaint that the electric utility company and others illegally took endangered fish as part of their electron hydroelectric project on the Puyallup River. The electric utility company's rock dam is an unpermitted take because it accelerates water which attracts upstream migrating endangered fish to the structure and away from the purpose-built fish ladder. The electric utility company and others are to apply for the necessary permits within 10 days of this order, and they are to remove a sufficient portion of the rock dam during the summer of 2024 in-water work season for the volitional upstream fish passage by Sep. 15, 2024.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Coughenour, Filed On: February 16, 2024, Case #: 2:20cv1864, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, water
J. Jones grants the consent decree between the nonprofit organization and the city regarding the former's complaint that the latter violated multiple provisions of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Among other stipulations, the city agrees to collect industrial stormwater samples, depending on weather patterns.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Jones, Filed On: February 15, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv756, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Settlements, water
J. King finds in partial favor of the county against the gas company's complaint that the county stopped accepting the plant condensate, a byproduct of its landfill gas conversion process, resulting in the closure of the gas company's landfill gas processing plant. The gas company argues that the plant condensate eventually makes its way to Puget Sound so the gas company's operations are subject to a Clean Water Act permit, but the plant condensate goes through a complicated process before reaching Puget Sound without traveling through a non-point source like the groundwater in the cited "County of Maui" to navigable waters.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: King, Filed On: February 9, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv542, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Environment, water, Contract
J. Goethals finds that the trial court properly rejected a pistachio grower's challenges to a local water agency's imposition of a groundwater replenishment fee. The grower's failure to "pay first, litigate later" violated established public policy and precluded its common law claim to native groundwater and its takings claim that the water was then illegally offered to other users. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Goethals, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: G062327, Categories: Agriculture, water
J. Myers and three additional judges grant the federal government’s motion to strike the jury trial demand brought by a group of military service members and their families in an ongoing dispute about allegedly contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. The service members and families claim some of them developed cancer or died after exposure to toxic substances in the water when they lived at the military base. The government enacted a law allowing affected individuals to sue it under certain conditions, but nothing in the law requires a jury trial.
Court: USDC Eastern District of North Carolina, Judge: Myers, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: 7:23cv897, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Tort, water, Military
J. Lange dismisses a matter without prejudice in which a company alleged a property developer violated the Clean Water Act of 1972 through their construction and design of a surface water runoff plan. The company failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. In a hearing on the motion, argument largely centered on whether dismissal of the complaint should be with or without prejudice.
Court: USDC South Dakota, Judge: Lange, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv5016, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: water
J. Birk finds that the lower court improperly determined the local statutes that govern which municipal water supplier rates will apply to a golf course. The golf course and the city disagree on which statutes apply, and the lower court determined it was the statute favored by the city that applies here. That finding was not supported by the record, however, given that when taken together, the histories of both statutes and the intention of the legislature show that the statutes favored by the golf course dictate their water rates. Reversed.
Court: Washington Court Of Appeals, Judge: Birk, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: 38792-5-III, Categories: Municipal Law, water
J. Zahn finds that the district court improperly relied on a modern confluence of creeks for its injury analysis in a water rights dispute. The historic confluence must be used for the injury analysis since the diversionary ditch that created the modern confluence was not claimed in the Snake River Basin Adjudication and was therefore not authorized. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: February 2, 2024, Case #: 50000-2022, Categories: water
J. Fenn finds that the lower court properly ruled in favor of the University of Wyoming regarding its drilling rights on a series of water wells. The City of Laramie claimed that a deed from 1965 barred the university from drilling in at least one of the wells. The lower court correctly found that state legislation affords the university sovereign immunity in the dispute that leaves the 1965 deed enforceable and gives the university drilling rights over the disputed wells. Affirmed.
Court: Wyoming Supreme Court, Judge: Fenn, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: S-23-0062, Categories: water
J. Connors finds that the Public Utilities Commission properly extended "a waiver of the standard depreciation rate for the Maine Water Company - Millinocket Division." The Commission properly applied Chapter 110 and did not abuse its discretion. Affirmed.
Court: Maine Supreme Court, Judge: Connors, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: 2024ME11, Categories: Civil Procedure, water
[Modified.] [Consolidated.] J. Mesiwala changes two paragraphs and denies a rehearing with no change in judgment. The trial court properly upheld the approval of amendments that will extend long-term water contracts between the Department of Water Resources and local government contractors to 2085. The amendments do not violate the Environmental Quality Act, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act or the public trust doctrine. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Mesiwala, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: C096304, Categories: Environment, water
[Consolidated] J. Lee finds the district court improperly found in favor of the water rights owners who claim the state engineer lacks authority to conjunctively manage waters to administer multiple basins forming the flow system at issue. The engineer did not exceed his statutory authority to combine multiple basins into one hydrographic "superbasin" based on a shared source. All respondents had adequate notice and opportunity to be heard. Affirmed in part.
Court: Nevada Supreme Court, Judge: Lee, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: 84739, Categories: Administrative Law, Property, water
J. Kobayashi partially dismisses failure-to-warn claims in a suit brought by military families who became sick after drinking water contaminated by jet fuel leaking from the Navy’s Red Hill storage facility. The lack of a water advisory after the fact constituted misrepresentation under the Federal Tort Claims Act, barring those claims. The failure-to-warn element of the families’ negligence claim survives since, under Hawaii law, a property owner has a duty to warn of any potential hazards to their lessees.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Kobayashi, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv397, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Government, Tort, water
J. McGrath finds that the trial court properly enforced water rights apportionments based on percentages, not flow rates, due to historical usage and because a reliance on flow rates would not work in years with low flow. No attorney fee award was due because there was no prevailing party. Affirmed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McGrath, Filed On: January 9, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0742, Categories: water, Attorney Fees
J. Lefkow denies a waste disposal company’s motion to dismiss an Illinois city’s claims that they violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into the Fox River. The waste disposal company claimed the city has no standing to bring the claim, as its drinking water intake is located almost a mile upstream from where the company allegedly discharged its pollutants. But the court disagrees, finding the company’s unpermitted discharges still occurred adjacent to city property. The court also partially grants the city’s motion to dismiss a counterclaim from the waste disposal company, seeking contributions from the city for any violations of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. The court finds the city may have “owner-operator liability” for contributions, but that the waste disposal company has not adequately alleged it has “arranger” liability.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Lefkow, Filed On: January 9, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv3187, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Municipal Law, water
J. Kasubhai declines to dismiss the recreational boating group's lawsuit seeking to enjoin the Oregon State Marine Board from enforcing Oregon Legislature Senate Bill 1589, which prohibits recreational boaters from certain recreation boating in the Newberg Pool Congested Zone of the Willamette River. The boating group plausibly alleges that the law violates its right to use federally funded facilities to access waterway for specific recreational purposes, because SB 1589 prohibits the recreational boating group from wake surfing and engaging in other recreational boating activities in the Newberg Pool.
Court: USDC Oregon, Judge: Kasubhai, Filed On: January 5, 2024, Case #: 6:23cv333, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, water
[Consolidated.] J. Mesiwala finds that the trial court properly upheld the approval of amendments that will extend long-term water contracts between the Department of Water Resources and local government contractors to 2085. The amendments do not violate the Environmental Quality Act, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act or the public trust doctrine. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Mesiwala, Filed On: January 5, 2024, Case #: C096304, Categories: Environment, water
J. Cartwright approves of the consent decree between the environmental protection organization and the marina for the former's lawsuit asserting that the latter and others violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into Puget Sound and Commencement Bay from areas where they store materials. Among other stipulations, the marina and others shall clean up the facility of all loose materials that are either stored or discharged outside the facility, including the area that is west or northwest of the facility's paved parking lot.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Cartwright, Filed On: January 5, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv5432, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, water
J. Tymkovich finds that the lower court improperly ruled against a gold mine operator after it was sued for alleged unlawful wastewater discharges into areas within the South Platte River floodplain. The lower court found the company was discharging unpermitted pollutants into navigable waters, but the ruling did not consider the entire picture. The lower court incorrectly found that groundwater discharges into settling ponds were the "functional equivalent" of direct discharges into the South Platte River, two entirely different discharges under the Clean Water Act. As a result, the lower court did not fully take into account all of the "geophysical factors" of the case. Reversed.
Court: 10th Circuit, Judge: Tymkovich, Filed On: January 3, 2024, Case #: 22-1340, Categories: Environment, water
J. Laplante determines the opinion of one of a group of property owners’ experts is inadmissible in this case, where the property owners are suing corporations whose manufacturing facility released toxic chemicals into the surrounding area, including the property owners’ groundwater. The property owners have other experts and didn’t object to this expert being excluded in their briefs.
Court: USDC New Hampshire, Judge: Laplante, Filed On: December 29, 2023, Case #: 1:16cv242, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: Environment, water, Experts
J. Laplante certifies a class of property owners suing corporations for releasing toxic chemicals from a manufacturing plant into the surrounding area. Though the corporations claim that the property owners’ claims cover a wide range of issues not all suffered across the class, the property owners’ claims of trespass, negligence and negligent failure to warn all have to do with the corporations’ liability and are issues that can be jointly resolved across the class.
Court: USDC New Hampshire, Judge: Laplante, Filed On: December 29, 2023, Case #: 1:16cv242, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: Environment, water, Class Action