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88 FR 59662

EPA finalized several amendments to the PCB regulations, including an expanded set of extraction and determinative methods that can be used to characterize and verify the cleanup of PCBs waste; amendment of the performance-based disposal option for PCB remediation waste; removal of the provision allowing PCB bulk product waste to be disposed of as roadbed material; and the addition of more flexible provisions for cleanup and disposal of waste generated by spills that occur during emergency situations.

88 FR 52040

EPA established tolerances for residues of the herbicide imazapic in or on rice, bran and rice, grain.

88 FR 51352

United States v. Belle Fourche Pipeline Co., No. 22-00089-DLH-CRH and United States v. Bridger Pipeline LLC, No. 22-00043-BLG-SPW (D.N.D. July 31, 2023). Under a proposed partial consent decree, settling CWA defendants must perform injunctive relief and pay a $12,500,000 civil penalty for violations arising from pipeline failures that resulted in discharges of oil into an unnamed tributary to Ash Coulee Creek and the Yellowstone River.

88 FR 51309

EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on the document entitled “White Paper: Quantitative Human Health Approach to be Applied in the Risk Evaluation for Asbestos Part 2—Supplemental Evaluation including Legacy Uses and Associated Disposals of Asbestos” and related charge questions.

88 FR 51672

DOD, the General Services Administration, and NASA proposed to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation to restructure and update the regulations to focus on current environmental and sustainability matters and to implement a requirement for agencies to procure sustainable products and services to the maximum extent practicable.

88 FR 50912

The Office of Management and Budget seeks comment on proposed guidance for assessing changes in environmental and ecosystem services in benefit-cost analysis.

Making Participation in Algorithm-Assisted Decisionmaking in Climate Investments More Accessible and Equitable

In How Algorithm-Assisted Decisionmaking Is Influencing Environmental Law and Climate Adaptation, Ziaja provides a useful framework to analyze whether an algorithm-assisted decisionmaking (AADM) tool and its design process is procedurally equitable. Ziaja’s framework contains several different questions advocacy groups can use to analyze the AADM tools that are increasingly used for environmental resource governance, such as the INFORM and RESOLVE algorithms discussed in the article, which guide the allocation and distribution of water and energy resources.

Learning to See Through the Black Box: Develop X-Ray Vision Through Algorithmic Intuition

Environmental, natural resource, and energy planning will continue to rely on increasingly complex algorithms. Are these processes then also doomed to be inaccessible to key stakeholders? Hopefully not. There are multiple steps to ensuring process and participatory equity. There is ease of access to the process, access to necessary information, and then there is the matter of having the right information to be able to meaningfully impact outcomes of algorithm-assisted decisionmaking processes.

How Algorithm-Assisted Decisionmaking is Influencing Environmental Law and Climate Adaptation

Agencies responsible for water and energy systems increasingly rely on algorithm-assisted decisionmaking to regulate these systems and shepherd them through climate adaptation. Legal scholars, attorneys, and environmental equity advocates should care about this fundamental change in governance for three reasons. First, climate adaptation depends on these tools. Second, algorithmic tools are not policy-neutral; rather they embed value-laden assumptions and biases. And third, the “rules” of this new forum impede equity and democratic participation, without deliberate countermeasures.

88 FR 50444

EPA proposed to lower the dust-lead hazard standards from ten micrograms per square foot (µg/ft2) and 100 µg/ft2 for floors and window sills to any reportable level as analyzed by a laboratory recognized by the Agency's National Lead Laboratory Accreditation Program in accordance with a 2021 Ninth Circuit opinion.