The court rejected the broad attacks on standing, notice, and the theory that Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act claims necessarily became Clean Air Act claims. Several core statutory and state-law theories survived.
Steer v. Town of Los Gatos: Discretionary Street Dedication Defeats CEQA Ministerial Exemption.
A private Clean Water Act consent decree did not preclude Washington’s separate suit because the State was neither a party nor in privity with the settling group.
The Fifth District held that Government Code section 955.3 overrides the general neutral-county venue rule when a local agency sues the State of California.
The Ninth Circuit held that state tort claims targeting aircraft particulate emissions are preempted unless they parallel an applicable federal emissions standard.
Laguna Beach could not eliminate CEQA protections for an entire historic inventory without determining property by property that the listed resources lacked historic significance.
The Court of Appeals affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded. It held that specifically challenged provisions using open-ended terms such as significant impacts did not provide adequate objective guidance and were unclear. The Rules Review Commission abandoned objections it failed to develop on appeal, but the trial court also erred by treating fourteen objections as beyond the Commission’s scope without determining which provisions met
The Ninth Circuit ordered further proceedings on whether Temescal Creek remains federally covered after Sackett while holding that coverage is a merits issue, not jurisdictional.
Imperial County’s lithium-project EIR lacked evidence of a 50-year water supply and failed to analyze related mitigation and air-quality risks.
The First Department held that gradual acid-rock drainage fell within pollution exclusions and that Canadian law would not materially change the coverage result.
The Ninth Circuit held that mandatory WIIN Act water-contract conversions required neither contract-specific NEPA review nor Endangered Species Act consultation.
The Ninth Circuit ordered a new trial on whether Temescal Creek remains covered by the Clean Water Act after Sackett narrowed federal water jurisdiction.
EPA could not read a feasibility exception into the Clean Air Act’s mandatory contingency-measure requirement for the San Joaquin Valley.
Sonoma County adequately considered public-trust impacts when revising its groundwater-well ordinance, but lacked substantial evidence for exempting the revision from CEQA.
The PUC acted within its broad authority when it adopted utility microgrid tariffs while rejecting a manufacturer’s competing proposal.
Sonoma County adequately considered public-trust impacts when revising its groundwater-well ordinance, but lacked substantial evidence for exempting the revision from CEQA.
A published California decision holds that a court-approved Proposition 65 settlement can bar a later private-enforcement suit over products covered by the consent judgment.
A proposed housing project in Redondo Beach’s coastal zone could be denied because it conflicted with the city’s Coastal Commission-certified local coastal program.
A trial court properly deferred to the Department of Water Resources and dismissed a duplicative challenge to a groundwater plan’s sustainability evaluation.
The Third Department held that New York rationally included Sunoco’s active fuel-terminal parcel in the Papscanee Island Historic District.
Industry groups get another chance to seek permissive intervention in emissions-waiver suit.
Industry groups get another chance to seek permissive intervention in emissions-waiver suit.
The Ninth Circuit vacates key portions of the EPA’s 2024 flame-retardant rule, finding EPA failed to adequately regulate decaBDE exposures in recycled plastics, disposal, wastewater, and sewage sludge as required by the Toxic Substances Control Act.
The Ninth Circuit, 2-1, holds that the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) does not preempt the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Rule 1146.2, which phases in zero-NOx emission standards for gas water heaters and boilers to bring the Los Angeles Basin into compliance with fed