EPA Region 9 proposed to reissue a general NPDES permit for water discharges from facilities classified as low threat located in the Navajo Nation.

The U.S. Geological Survey announced that it, in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada and Mexico’s La Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad, will undertake a two-year regional assessment of biodiversity and climate change, culminating in the first-ever assessment report addressing these two challenges together for the United States, Canada, Mexico, U.S. territories, and Freely Associated States.

EPA proposed to establish federal water quality standards (WQS) for Indian reservation waters that currently do not have WQS in effect under the CWA, with limited exceptions.

The National Credit Union Administration seeks public input on current and future climate and natural disaster risks to federally insured credit unions (FICUs), related entities, their members, and the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, and on the development of potential future guidance, regulation, reporting requirements, and/or supervisory approaches for FICUs’ management of climate-related financial risks.

EPA entered into a proposed settlement agreement under the CWA and the APA in Center for Biological Diversity v. EPA, No. 21-71306 (9th Cir.), which would require the Agency to take specified steps with respect to implementation of the 2021 pesticide general permit (PGP), complete ESA consultation of the 2026 PGP, and propose for public comment certain changes to its monitoring and recordkeeping provisions.

EPA entered into a proposed settlement agreement under the CWA and the APA in Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Inc. v. U.S. EPA , No. 1:20-cv-2529 (D.D.C.), which would require the Agency to take steps regarding its oversight and funding of Pennsylvania’s efforts under its CWA programs to reduce nutrient and sediment discharges within the state’s portion of the Bay watershed and evaluate by the end of 2026 how each Bay state fared in meeting the 2025 Goal set forward in the last Chesapeake Bay Agreement.

United States v. Holyoke, Massachusetts, City of, No. 19-cv-10332-MGM (D. Mass. Mar. 22, 2023). A settling CWA defendant that discharged pollutants from unpermitted components of its sewer collection system to the Connecticut River must separate portions of the sewer collection system, upgrade certain elements of the combined sewer system, implement an illicit discharge detection and elimination program to address stormwater discharges, and pay a $50,000 civil penalty.

United States v. ABF Freight System, Inc., No. 2:23-cv-02039-PKH (W.D. Ark. Mar. 20, 2023). A settling CWA defendant must pay a civil penalty of $535,000 and implement compliance measures at all freight terminals currently operated nationwide (except in the state of Washington) in connection with alleged violations at nine freight terminals.

The United States Global Change Research Program requests input from the public to guide an update of the 2009 “Climate Literacy: Essential Principles of Climate Science” to inform the program as it updates the guide to include current climate and social science, and a focus on justice and capacity to implement solutions.

United States v. Gloucester, Massachusetts, City of, No. 1:23-cv-10505-LTS (D. Mass. Mar. 6, 2023). A settling CWA defendant must construct secondary sewage treatment upgrades by March 31, 2028, and comply with all effluent limits in the final permit by June 30, 2028, in connection with defendant's failure to meet certain effluent limits, based on secondary treatment standards, of the city’s water pollution control facility in violation of the final NPDES permit.