EPA granted emergency exemptions under FIFRA for the use of certain pesticides to control pest outbreaks to Arizona, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, and North Dakota, and denied emergency exemptions to Colorado and Nebraska.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

EPA proposed to address the unreasonable risk of injury to human health presented by carbon tetrachloride under its conditions of use as documented in EPA’s 2020 Risk Evaluation for Carbon Tetrachloride and 2022 Revised Unreasonable Risk Determination for Carbon Tetrachloride pursuant to the TSCA.

The federal agencies issued their semiannual regulatory agendas to update the public about regulations currently under development, reviews of existing regulations with small business impacts, and regulations completed or canceled since the last agenda. EPA’s agenda can be found at 88 FR 48598.