Michigan Supreme Court Let’s Stand Court of Appeals’ Ruling that Finds No Takings Claim on Wetlands Permit Denial October 2006

Superior Court Holds Real Party and Respondent Agency Limited to One Peremptory Disqualification between Them—Denies Motions to Consolidate Challenges to ‘Railyard’ Development May 2008

Multiple Groups File Suit on Environmental Impact Report Prepared for Much-Anticipated Sacramento Specific Plan March 2008

District Court Rejects Abstention in Determining Citizen Claims under RCRA where State Underground Storage Tank Law Offered Alternative Relief August 2007

Airport Land... July 2001

District Court Applies Aviall and Dismisses All CERCLA Claims by One Potentially Responsible Party against Another October 2005

Sixth Circuit Finds the Equitable Nature of CERCLA Does Not Constitute Grounds for Reopening of Allocation Judgments March 2004

District Court Holds New York Environmental Conservation Law Does Not Provide a Private Right of Action August 2009

First District Court Holds Two or More Properties with the Same ‘Owner in Substance’ May Be Merged if the Map Act’s Requirements Are Met August 2007

Federal/Oregon: District Court Denies Klamath Farmers' Request For Injuction Preventing Implementation of Bureau's 2001 Operations Plan July 2001

U.S. Supreme Court Affirms Special Master’s Fourth Report and Settles (for Now) Longstanding Litigation between Kansas and Colorado January 2005

Second Appellate District Holds That Adverse Possession May Not Masquerade as a Prescriptive Easement May 2004

New York Federal District Court Dismisses RCRA Claims where Plaintiff Failed to Show Remediation Plan Inadequate October 2004

Defendants Escape with Sanctions Sought because of Their Alleged Failure to Comply with Discovery Orders June 2002

News from the West May 2007

Tenth Circuit Rules that U.S. EPA’s Prosecution under the Clean Water Act Precludes Citizen’s Suit and Citizen’s Notice Is Defective March 2007

California District Court Holds that Trusts, Like Other Entities Formed for Purposes of Performing Environmental Cleanups, Can Bring CERCLA Contribution Actions June 2002

Ninth Circuit Upholds Denial of Attorney's Fees Award in RCRA Case, Finding that Catalyst Theory of Recovery Inufficient in Face of Supreme Court Decision June 2003

First District Rules Agency Cannot Delete a Previously Adopted Mitigation Measure Attached to an Expired Approval without Reviewing the Continuing Need for the Mitigation March 2010

Insurers Issuing Comprehensive Liability Policy Covering "Tangible" Property Loss Owe No Duty to Defend in Implied Easement Dispute April 2001

Eighth Circuit Finds Contribution for CERCLA Liability Depends on Substantial Continuity Test February 2007

Ninth Circuit Holds Government Official or Entity May Receive Noerr-Pennington Immunity for Petitioning Involved in Eminent Domain Proceeding— Finds Government Activity Subject to ‘Sham’ Exception July 2009

Arizona Court Finds Feces Not a "contaminant" or "irritant" for Purposes of the Absolute Pollution Exclusion Clause February 2001

Third District Court of Appeal Holds "Common Grantor" Requirement for Easement by Necessity May Be Satisfied where Federal Government Was the Common Grantor December 2002

‘Protect Our Homes Act’ Initiative Seeking Constitutional Amendment Qualifies for November Ballot October 2006

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds the Taking of Private Property for Economic Development August 2005

Thrice More into the Breach: The U.S. Supreme Court Takes on Takings in Kelo, San Remo and Lingle August 2005

Using Eminent Domain to Benefit Private Development: Public Use or a Public Excuse February 2005

D.C. Circuit Declines to Second Guess Mine Safety and Health Administation’s Diesel Particulate Matter Rules April 2007

Eighth Circuit Holds that Strict Liability Is Not Applicable to Action against a Landowner’s Predecessor in Title for Environmental Damage to Land. September 2004

Third District Finds CEQA Baseline Is Normally the Existing Environment when Environmental Review Begins July 2002

District Court Grants Injunction under RCRA in Kentucky Petroleum Solid Waste Case May 2010

EPA’s Decision to Permit State to Move Vehicle Inspection Program to Contingency Status Is within EPA’s Sound Discretion January 2007

Sixth Circuit Orders Kentucky’s Clean Water Act ‘Tier II Exemptions for De Minimus Discharges’ Remanded to EPA November 2008

New Studies Received after Close of Comment Period for Proposal to List Buena Vista Lake Shrew as Endangered Did Not Trigger Requirement to Reopen Public Comment August 2006

Freeport Regional Water Project Dispute Resolved March 2004

Water Agencies Seek Injunction to Halt East Bay Municipal Utility District Freeport Project May 2003

First District Extends California ESA to State Agencies— Finds Agencies Cannot Take Endangered Species without Permit August 2010

Ninth Circuit Orders BLM, Pursuant to NEPA, to Take a Harder Look at the Impacts of Fungus on the Port Orford Cedar May 2002

Recovery of the Government’s Attorneys’ Fees under CERCLA: An Ongoing Problem for Responsible Parties March 2008

State Decisions: Washington State Court of Appeals' Allows Commercial Uses under Groundwater Permit "Industrial" Exemption April 2003

Second District Permits Castaic Lake Water Agency to Enter the Retail Water Market in the Santa Clarita Valley October 2004

Klamath Basin Adjudication Update: Klamath Tribes and Dam Owner Reach Water Right Settlement June 2010

Oregon Supreme Court Addresses Beneficial and Equitable Property Rights in Klamath Basin Water ‘Owned’ by the U.S June 2010

Oregon Supreme Court to Address Water Users’ Property Interest in Water Received from the Bureau of Reclamation in the Klamath River Basin February 2010

Court of Federal Claims Holds that Klamath Project Interests Are Not Compensable Property Rights under the Fifth Amendment October 2005

Oregon Supreme Court Weighs in on the Klamath Basin Irrigators’ Property Interest in the Water Received from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation May 2010

News from the West May 2010

Ninth Circuit Finds the BLM’s Environmental Assessments of Timber Harvest Plans Failed to Adequately Consider Cumulative Impacts January 2005

Department of The Interior V. Klamath Water Users Association: An End to Secret Advocacy by Tribes During Water Allocation Proceedings? June 2001

Judge Says Statute of Limitations Bars Tribe’s Claims for Compensation for Alleged Damages Sustained to Tribal Fishing Rights June 2005

Ninth Circuit Upholds Residential Picketing Ordinance as a Valid Time, Place and Manner Restriction November 2006

New Jersey Appellate Division Remands Case Allowing Claims for Trespass and ‘Takings’ against Borough for Its Actions to Prevent Storm Surge Damage March 2007

Ninth Circuit Applies Supreme Court Decision in Atlantic Research, Reverses Itself in Pinal Creek, Allows Cost Recovery Claims Under CERCLA Section 107(a) June 2008

News from the West December 2008

Montana Supreme Court Determines Appurtenant Water Rights by Examining the Historic Use of Water on the Land December 2008