EPA proposed to grant final authorization to Virginia for revisions to its hazardous waste management program under RCRA.

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.

FWS announced 12-month findings on petitions to list three salamander species from the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains under the ESA, finding that listing the Kern Canyon slender salamander as threatened and the relictual slender salamander as endangered was warranted, but that listing the Kern Plateau salamander was not warranted at this time; the agency also proposed to designate 2,051 acres and 2,685 acres in Kern County, California, for the Kern Canyon slender salamander and the relictual slender salamander, respectively.

SIP Approval: North Carolina (revisions to exclusionary rules and permit exemptions).

EPA released a notice of data availability, making available and soliciting stakeholder input on Analysis of the U.S. Hydrofluorocarbon Reclamation Market: Stakeholders, Drivers, and Practices, a draft report that analyzes the United States’ hydrofluorocarbon reclamation market and describes the reclamation process, factors affecting costs of reclamation, incentives, and barriers to refrigerant reclamation as part of planned Agency action under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020.

EPA's administrator proposed to find that lead air pollution may reasonably be anticipated to endanger the public health and welfare within the meaning of CAA §231(a), and that engine emissions of lead from certain aircraft cause or contribute to such pollution.

NMFS proposed to designate approximately 2,353.19 square kilometers of aquatic habitat located in waters off the coasts of southeastern Florida, Puerto Rico, Navassa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as critical habitat for the threatened Nassau grouper under the ESA.

SIP Approval: Georgia (maintenance plan and redesignation to attainment for the Atlanta 2015 eight-hour ozone nonattainment area).

EPA approved the Maine Department of Environmental Protection's request to revise or modify certain of its Agency-authorized programs to allow electronic reporting.

United States v. Stony Brook Regional Sewerage Authority, No. 3:22-cv-05922 (D.N.J. Oct. 6, 2022). A settling CAA defendant must pay a $335,750 civil penalty; complete and submit a control plan and site-specific monitoring plan that includes procedures to measure the mercury concentration in its sewage sludge; conduct a Subpart LLL-compliant performance test; develop and undertake standard operating procedures and recordkeeping and reporting obligations to minimize use of the bypass stack; undertake root cause analyses and corrective actions whenever there is an exceedance of the limit for mercury concentration of the sewage sludge or the bypass stack is used; and pay stipulated penalties for violations of consent decree requirements.