United States v. Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, No. 3:15-CV-02283 (D.P.R. June 29, 2023). Under a proposed modification to a consent decree, a settling CWA defendant is granted a deadline extension on implementing projects to address wastewater discharges from drinking water treatment plants.
United States v. Messer LLC, No. 5:23-cv-0023-JPB (N.D.W. Va. June 22, 2023). A settling CWA defendant that violated NPDES permit numeric effluent limits with respect to wastewater discharges from its industrial gas manufacturing plant in New Cumberland, West Virginia, must perform injunctive relief, including operation of a newly installed copper treatment system by certain deadlines, implementation of a tiered effluent limit response plan, and revision and routine performance of stormwater best management practice measures; and pay a $1.9 million civil penalty.
FERC directed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to develop a new or modified reliability standard to address reliability concerns pertaining to transmission system planning for extreme heat and cold weather events that impact the reliable operation of the bulk-power system.
EPA Region 4 proposed to reissue the NPDES general permit for the outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico for discharges in the offshore subcategory of the oil and gas extraction point source category.
EPA finalized clarifications to its NPDES Stormwater Phase II regulations due to recent changes made by the Census Bureau, clarifying that the designation criteria for small municipal separate storm sewer systems will remain the same.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy notified the Earth Observations community that a draft of the congressionally-mandated National Plan for Civil Earth Observations will be released for a short national review period in Summer 2023.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office expanded the Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program to include innovations in any economic sector that are designed to make progress toward achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, increased the filing limitations for petitions under the program, and extended the duration of the program.
United States v. Eastman Chemical Resins, Inc., No. 2:23-cv-00867-MJH (W.D. Pa. May 24, 2023). Settling CWA, CAA, and RCRA defendants must perform injunctive relief, including conducting a third-party environmental audit, implementing effluent limit violations response requirements, performing facility specific work and repairs, completing comprehensive stormwater and groundwater control plans, and implementing a RCRA-based training program and daily inspection requirements; as well as pay a $2.4 million civil penalty in connection with alleged violations at a hydrocarbon resins manufacturing facility in Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania.
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.