United States v. Flint Hills Resources Ingleside, LLC, No. 2:24-cv-00079 (S.D. Tex. Apr. 8, 2024). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CWA and OPA defendant that allegedly discharged about 14,000 gallons of crude oil that spilled into Corpus Christi Bay from a ruptured pipe on a dock at the defendant's crude oil storage terminal in Ingleside, Texas, must pay a total of $989,212.80. 

FWS revised regulations concerning the issuance of enhancement of survival and incidental take permits under the ESA. 

United States v. D.R. Horton, Inc., No. 2:24-cv-00428-AMM (N.D. Ala. Apr. 8, 2024). Under a proposed consent decree, settling CWA defendants that violated stormwater management requirements at 16 homebuilding construction sites must implement specified stormwater management practices, implement a supplemental environmental project that will cost $400,000, and pay a civil penalty of $400,000. 

EPA proposed to promulgate a CWA chronic aquatic life ambient water quality criterion for waters under the state of Idaho’s jurisdiction to protect aquatic life from exposure to harmful concentrations or levels of total mercury.

FWS revised its regulations concerning protections of endangered and threatened species under the ESA by reinstating the general application of the "blanket rule'' option for protecting newly listed threatened species pursuant to §4(d) of the Act, with the continued option to promulgate species-specific §4(d) rules, and extending to federally recognized tribes the exceptions to prohibitions for threatened species that the regulations currently provide to the employees or agents of FWS and other federal and state agencies to aid, salvage, or dispose of threatened species.

FWS and NMFS finalized revisions to portions of their regulations that implement §4 of the ESA, concerning procedures and criteria used for listing, reclassifying, and delisting species on the lists of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants and designating critical habitat.

FWS and NMFS finalized revisions to portions of their regulations that implement §7 of the ESA concerning interagency cooperation procedures.

FWS proposed to remove the Roanoke logperch from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife due to recovery. 

FWS revised the rule for the African elephant promulgated under §4(d) of the ESA in order to increase protection for the species, clarify the existing enhancement requirement, and incorporate a Party’s designation under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora National Legislation Project into various decisionmaking processes regarding imports.

EPA entered into a proposed consent decree in Sierra Club v. EPA, No. 3:24-cv-00130 (S.D.W. Va.), concerning allegations that the Agency failed to perform a mandatory duty under the CWA to establish TMDLs for certain waters located in the Lower Guyandotte River Watershed in West Virginia that are impaired due to ionic toxicity.