79 results for 'cat:"Environment" AND cat:"Water"'.
J. Moeller finds that the district court properly held that a Department of Water Resources enforcement action was not barred by a two-year limitations period. The period began to run when the department's director became aware that a landowner had not completed the streambank restoration required by a consent order. The landowner was involved in ongoing negotiations with the department over his compliance, so the director would have first known he did not plan to comply when he sought declaratory relief. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 50273, Categories: environment, water
J. Tallman affirmed a matter in part from a combined jury and bench trial against a munitions and explosives company in an action brought by the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency (SCVWA) that alleged that the company was responsible for contamination of groundwater that the agency pumps from wells. The district court properly permitted SCVWA to assert restoration costs as a measure of damages for the first time after the close of discovery, SCVWA adequately established that groundwater treatment facilities were an appropriate measure of damages, and the jury award of restoration costs was reasonable. However, the district court improperly denied a finding to SCVWA a liability against the company for one category of incurred response costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. Affirmed in part.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Tallman, Filed On: April 15, 2024, Case #: 22-55727, Categories: environment, water
J. Hiraoka finds an environmental court properly determined that the conservation group was not entitled to a contested case hearing over the renewal of permits to divert water from a Maui river. The group did not have a constitutionally protected property interest in the permits based on rights to a clean and healthful environment. The permits do comply with environmental regulations and governmental interest in the providing water to its communities overweighs the need for a contested case hearing. However, when the permits were continued, the environmental court should not have modified the conditions to limit stream diversions as the board should have authority over modifications. Affirmed.
Court: Hawai'i Court Of Appeals, Judge: Hiraoka, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: CAAP-22-516, Categories: environment, Government, water
J. Stephens finds that the lower court properly found that the Benton County Water Conservancy Board does not have the standing to challenge a policy from the state Department of Ecology that governs the division of water rights. The board has not been able to show that it suffered any injury after the department refused to accept proposed division forms under the policy, and its interests would not be redressed if the challenged policy were tossed. The board lacks all standing to challenge it as a result. Affirmed.
Court: Washington Supreme Court, Judge: Stephens, Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: 101838-0, Categories: environment, water
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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. 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. 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
[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
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
[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
J. Rothstein grants the interim consent decree between the environment advocacy group, the State of Washington Department of Ecology and the EPA for the advocacy's complaint accusing the government of violating the Clean Water Act by not identifying impaired waters or development clean-up plans. Among other stipulations, the State of Washington Department of Ecology shall submit the completed total maximum daily loads specified in an attached appendix to the government agency.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Rothstein, Filed On: December 21, 2023, Case #: 2:19cv1537, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment, water
J. Guzman denies, in part, several companies' motions to dismiss claims filed against them through a class action for allegedly contaminating groundwater wells with chemicals. The residents sufficiently allege three of the companies submitted false environmental compliance certifications and did so knowingly, as a way to save money.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Guzman, Filed On: December 21, 2023, Case #: 4:22cv40089, NOS: Contract Product Liability - Contract, Categories: environment, water, Class Action
J. Evanson grants the consent decree between the nonprofit organization and the general contractor for the former's complaint accusing the latter of discharging stormwater and other pollutants into the Duwamish Waterway, which flows to Puget Sound. Among other stipulations, the general contractor will electronically forward copies of all submissions and written communications for the facility to the nonprofit organization on a monthly basis.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Evanson, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv848, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Settlements, water
J. Rothstein grants the property owner partial summary judgment for his claim that the man-made stormwater treatment facility on the residential development property, which the property owner says unlawfully discharges pollutants into the nearby wetlands and Lacamas Lake, is both a point source and part of the “Waters of the United States." Nothing in the Clean Water Act indicates that a point source and a WOTUS are mutually exclusive, and the residential development owner does not support its argument that the matter will not survive a legal challenge with any legal authority.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Rothstein, Filed On: December 18, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv5834, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Property, water
J. Earl finds that the trial court properly denied a motion filed by one of 11 plaintiffs in the coordinated State Water Board Cases that sought to intervene all 11 cases. The coordinated cases are challenges to the State Water Resources Control Board's adoption of a water quality control plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary. The San Joaquin Tributaries Authority is not entitled to mandatory intervention, as it lacks either a property or transactional interest in the plan's flow and salinity objectives and it failed to show how any settlement would impair its ability to protect its interests. And permissive intervention would result in unnecessary participation that would further complicate a case that already has 55 names on the service list. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Earl, Filed On: December 13, 2023, Case #: C096511, Categories: Civil Procedure, environment, water
J. Zilly denies the trucking company's motion to modify or vacate the consent decree entered on Dec. 8, 2020, regarding the government's complaint accusing the trucking company of violating the Clean Water Act by discharging fill material into wetlands and streams. The trucking company asserts that wetlands separated from other United States waters by man-made dikes or barriers do not count as adjacent wetlands, but the case the trucking company cites recognizes that the CWA prevents a landowner from carving out wetlands from federal jurisdiction using a barrier.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Zilly, Filed On: December 8, 2023, Case #: 2:18cv747, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Native Americans, water
J. Lee finds that the district court improperly entered summary judgment for the government including the Fish and Wildlife Service on an easement and remanded with instructions for the Service and the U.S. Army to reevaluate its water-savings analysis in a new biological opinion. The action was brought by environmental organizations challenging a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion concerning the use of water from the San Pedro River Basin in Arizona. Reversed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Lee, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 22-15809, Categories: environment, water