89 FR 26141
EPA adopted FWS' categorical exclusion for restoration activities of wetland, riparian, instream, and native habitats under NEPA to use in certain water grants and loan programs administered by the Agency.
Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
A district court denied summary judgment for Native American tribes in a challenge to EPA's approval of Minnesota's 2021 revised water quality standards. The revisions replaced quantitative standards with qualitative narrative standards that describe the characteristics Minnesota waters must have to...
Citizens for Clean Air & Clean Water in Brazoria County v. United States Department of Transportation
The Fifth Circuit denied environmental groups' petition to review DOT's approval of a license to construct and operate a large deepwater oil facility off the Texas coast. The groups argued the final EIS applied a "flawed" alternatives analysis and "grossly underestimated" the facility's environmenta...
Sierra Club v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
The D.C. Circuit denied an environmental group's petitions to review FERC's decision to grant time extensions for two developers to complete natural gas pipeline projects. The group argued FERC was too permissive in finding "good cause" to grant the extensions. The court found FERC followed its reas...
89 FR 25901
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.
89 FR 25672
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.
89 FR 25497
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration amended and updated its regulations for implementing NEPA, and incorporated updates to its categorical exclusions.
89 FR 25261
EPA entered into a proposed administrative settlement agreement under CERCLA for past response costs associated with the Chemical Recycling Inc., Superfund Site in Wylie, Texas.