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News Articles

Congress Considers Amendment to Expand Reach of the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act

By Brian Hamilton and Merdith Nikkel On September 11, 2020, Congressman John Garamendi introduced a bill to amend the 2014 Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation…

Read More 2020-11-18

California Environmental Quality Act Considerations When Evaluating Impacts to Aquatic and Other Biological Resources

By Robbie Hull, Scott Birkey, and Clark Morrison One of the stated legislative policies underlying the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is to: . .…

Read More 2020-10-02

U.S. District Court Reverses Army Corps’ Clean Water Act Jurisdictional Determination—Applies Both Justice Kennedy and Justice Scalia’s Analyses in Rapanos

By Melissa Jo Townsend, Rebecca Andrews The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana recently reversed and remanded a U.S. Army Corps of…

Read More 2020-10-02

California Court of Appeal Finds County’s Action to Abandon a Public Road Easement Relied on Incorrect EIR in Conducting Subsequent Review

By James Purvis Owners of property in a residential subdivision brought an inverse condemnation claim against Placer County (County) and filed petitions for writ of…

Read More 2020-10-02

California Court of Appeal Finds Imperial Irrigation District Water Allocation Program Invalid but Not a ‘Taking’ of Water Rights

By Derek R. Hoffman In a years-long dispute over water allocations among irrigation district water users in the Imperial Valley, the California Fourth District Court…

Read More 2020-10-02

Eighth Circuit Addresses an Application to EPA to Register Renewable Fuel Credits by a Refinery that Was Thwarted by the Agency’s Electronic System

By Deborah Quick Obtaining final agency action subject to judicial review can sometimes feel like the culmination of a mythic odyssey to applicants for administrative…

Read More 2020-10-02

State Attorneys General Challenge Trump Administration’s Revamp of the National Environmental Policy Act

By Geremy Holm, Miles Krieger, Steve Anderson In July 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality adopted sweeping revisions to its longstanding 1978 regulations detailing implementation…

Read More 2020-10-02

Nevada Supreme Court Answers Certified Questions from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Regarding the State’s Public Trust Doctrine

By Debbie Leonard On September 17, 2020, the Nevada Supreme Court issued an eagerly awaited ruling regarding the public trust doctrine in the long-running Walker…

Read More 2020-10-02

California Supreme Court Holds County’s Blanket Classification of Well Construction Permit Issuances as Ministerial Violates CEQA

By Christina Berglund The California Supreme Court in Protecting Our Water and Environmental Resources v. County of Stanislaus found that the County of Stanislaus (County) had…

Read More 2020-10-02

California Court of Appeal Finds Development Agreements Can Abridge Vested Rights Established in Approved Vesting Tentative Maps

By Travis Brooks The Fourth District Court of Appeal has provided some clarity on previously undecided issue regarding the interplay between vesting tentative and development…

Read More 2020-09-07