EPA adjusted the level of the maximum and minimum statutory civil monetary penalty amounts under the statutes it administers. 

In re: Mallinckrodt PLC, No. 20-12522 (D. Del. Dec. 4, 2023). A proposed settlement agreement grants the United States an allowed unsecured claim against a settling CERCLA defendant on behalf of DOI in the amount of $56,880,784, and for EPA in the amount of $499,216, for past costs and future liability as a potential liable party at the Sangamo Electric Dump/Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge Site. 

United States v. TCI Pacific Communications LLC, No. 23-4218 (C.D. Ill. Dec. 5, 2023). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CERCLA defendant must pay a total of $368,831.16 in EPA’s response costs and perform remedial work with respect to Operable Unit 4 of the DePue/New Jersey Zinc/Mobil Chemical Corp. Superfund Site in DePue, Illinois. 

United States v. Wyeth Holdings LLC, No. 2:23-cv-22922 (D.N.J. Dec. 6, 2023). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CERCLA defendant that allegedly released hazardous substances at or from the American Cyanamid Superfund Site in Somerset County, New Jersey, causing injury to floodplains, riparian areas, and wetlands adjacent to the site and the biota supported by these habitats, must undertake and fund the “Duke Farms Forested Floodplain Restoration Project,” which will restore 112 areas of former farmland located upstream of the site on the Raritan River to a natural habitat, as well as pay for assessment and oversight costs.

EPA entered into a proposed administrative settlement under CERCLA for the recovery of past response costs concerning the Seerley Road Fire Site in Indianapolis, Indiana.

EPA entered into a proposed CERCLA §122(g)(4) de minimus landowner administrative settlement agreement for parties associated with the Fansteel Metals/FMRI Superfund site in Muskogee, Oklahoma. 

United States v. Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor LLC, No. 23-381 (N.D. Ind. Nov. 8, 2023). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CERCLA defendant that allegedly released cyanide and ammonia into the East Branch of the Little Calumet River during an August 2019 incident, which led to beach closures, a fish kill, and other natural resource damages, must donate and conserve two approximately one-acre parcels of land bordering the East Branch of the Little Calumet River and near the Indiana Dunes National Park, pay $409,533 to the DOI Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Fund, and pay $590,173 to the governments for reimbursement of natural resource damages assessment costs.

EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on a draft policy that updates the Agency’s 2003 Public Involvement Policy.

EPA announced a 60-day public comment period on the draft revision of the Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis.

United States v. ACF Industries LLC, No. 3:23-cv-1603 (D. Or. Nov. 1, 2023). Under two proposed consent decrees, settling CERCLA, CWA, and OPA defendants whose facilities along the Willamette River released hazardous substances must pay cash and/or purchase restoration credits in one or more restoration projects approved by the Natural Resource Trustees to create habitat for injured natural resources, and make payments for the public’s lost recreational use of the river, for monitoring of culturally significant plants and animals, and for reimbursement of the Natural Resource Trustees’ costs.