EPA invited public comment to inform the domestic availability of multiple products used in the construction, alteration, and/or maintenance of water infrastructure. 

United States v. ACF Industries LLC, No. 3:23-cv-1603 (D. Or. Nov. 1, 2023). Under two proposed consent decrees, settling CERCLA, CWA, and OPA defendants whose facilities along the Willamette River released hazardous substances must pay cash and/or purchase restoration credits in one or more restoration projects approved by the Natural Resource Trustees to create habitat for injured natural resources, and make payments for the public’s lost recreational use of the river, for monitoring of culturally significant plants and animals, and for reimbursement of the Natural Resource Trustees’ costs. 

FWS established a nonessential experimental population of the gray wolf in Colorado under the ESA. 

United States v. Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton County, No. C-1-02-107 (S.D. Ohio Oct. 25, 2023). A proposed material modification to a consent decree under the CAA moves two projects back in priority order; changes the descriptions and design criteria for a few projects; adds a process to the Wet Weather Improvement Plan (WWIP) to address previously unidentified CSO or SSO outfalls; adds an additional short phase of work to the WWIP’s scheduling process; and makes a few clarifying changes to other aspects of the WWIP. 

FWS removed the plants island bedstraw and Santa Cruz Island dudleya from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Plants on the basis of recovery. 

In order to comply with a district court order, FWS reinstated regulatory protections under the ESA for the gray wolf in all or portions of the 45 U.S. states and Mexico, where the species was listed at the time the delisting rule was issued. 

United States v. Revere, Massachusetts, City of, No. 1:10-cv-11460 (D. Mass. Oct. 25, 2023). Under a proposed first modification to a consent decree, a settling CWA defendant must update portions of its Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan and Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan by December 31, 2026. 

EPA announced the preliminary designation of stormwater discharges from certain commercial, industrial, and institutional sites in two watersheds in Los Angeles County, California, for regulation under the CWA NPDES permitting program. 

FWS reclassified Mitracarpus polycladus from endangered to threatened under the ESA, and issued a rule under §4(d) of the Act that provides for the conservation of the species.

FWS proposed to list the oblong rocksnail as an endangered species under the ESA.