United States v. Lynden, Inc., No. 2:23-cv-00101 (W.D. Wash. Jan. 24, 2023). Settling CERCLA, CWA, and OPA defendants that released hazardous substances and discharged oil from facilities along and near the Lower Duwamish River must pay $556,250 for natural resource damages; purchase restoration credits in a restoration project constructed along the Lower Duwamish River by a project developer to serve as a restoration credit bank; and pay their equitable share of assessment costs.

DOJ, on behalf of DOI, entered into a proposed settlement agreement under OPA that requires the settling party to pay $567,155.97 for past assessment costs and implementation of natural resource restoration projects related to the December 15, 2017, discharge of approximately 11,600 gallons of unleaded gasoline from a fuel tanker near Idanha, Oregon.

The U.S. Coast Guard adjusted the limits of liability for vessels, deepwater ports, and onshore facilities under the Oil Pollution Act to reflect the increase in the Consumer Price Index since they were last adjusted in 2019.

United States v. Enbridge Energy, L.P., No. 1:16-cv-914 (W.D. Mich. Oct. 12, 2022). A proposed modification of a consent decree concerning two 2010 oil spills that resulted from oil transmission pipeline failures near Marshall, Michigan, and Romeoville, Illinois, would establish requirements and procedures by which settling CWA and OPA defendants may seek partial termination of specified obligations under the decree; explicitly designate specified pipeline segments on Lines 61 and 62 as “replacement segments” that are subject to additional leak detection system-related requirements; establish deadlines applicable to the resumption of in-line inspections on Line 62 following a long period when that pipeline was not in service; and confirm that defendants will not be required to perform axial crack in-line inspections on the dual pipelines and associated piping prior to expiration of a time period that corresponds to one-half of the estimated remaining fatigue life of the worst potential axial crack feature that could have survived the 2017 hydrostatic pressure tests.

DOJ announced and seeks comment on a proposed settlement agreement that requires a settling OPA defendant that discharged approximately 5,800 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil from a fuel tanker on U.S. Highway 20 near Toledo, Oregon, to pay $175,000 to the DOI Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Fund, $25,000 to compensate for past assessment costs and $150,000 for restoration activities. 

United States v. Taylor Energy Co. LLC, No. 20-2910 (E.D. La. Dec. 20, 2021). A settling OPA and CWA defendant that discharged oil from a former oil production facility on the outer continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico must transfer to DOI over $432 million currently held in a trust for plugging seafloor oil wells and decommissioning the facility and pay $15 million in civil penalties, $16.5 million to natural resource damages, and over $12 million to the U.S. Coast Guard removal costs.

United States v. Kirby Inland Marine, LP, No. 3:21-cv-00335 (S.D. Tex. Nov. 30, 2021). A settling OPA defendant that discharged oil from a barge during a collision in the Houston Ship Channel in Texas City, Texas, must pay a civil penalty of $15,334,768.83. 

United States v. Bridger Pipeline LLC, No. 1:21-cv-00122-SPW-KLD (D. Mont. Nov. 17, 2021). A settling OPA defendant that discharged oil from Bridger's Poplar Pipeline into the Yellowstone River near Glendive, Montana, in January 2015 must pay a civil penalty of $2,000,000.

United States v. American Commercial Barge Line LLC, No. 2:21-cv-01818 (E.D. La. Oct. 4, 2021). A settling OPA defendant that discharged oil from its barge into the Mississippi River must effect the transfer of title and preservation of approximately 649 acres of forested woodland habitat in Plaquemines Parish, Louisana, and choose to either pay $2,071,212 to the federal trustees or acquire the equivalent of the natural resources allegedly injured as a result of the oil spill.