EPA announced the initiation of and seeks comment on the prioritization process for five chemical substances as candidates for designation as high-priority substances for risk evaluation under TSCA and related implementing regulations.

SIP Approval: Indiana (volatile organic compound rules).

SIP Proposal: California (rule to address nonattainment fees in the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District).  

SIP Approval: California (requirements for the 1997 annual fine particulate matter (PM2.5) NAAQS in the San Joaquin Valley PM2.5 nonattainment area, and the 2020 and 2023 motor vehicle emissions budgets and trading mechanism for use in transportation conformity analyses for the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS). 

SIP Proposal: Alabama (2006 24-hour fine particulate matter NAAQS limited maintenance plan for the Birmingham, Alabama maintenance area). 

EPA proposed to partially approve and partially disapprove a state plan submitted by the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency that establishes emission limits for existing large municipal waste combustors and provides for the implementation and enforcement of these limits.

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. Heritage-Crystal Clean, LLC, No. 1:22-cv-00303 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 7, 2023). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling RCRA defendant that allegedly violated various hazardous waste management requirements at five of its facilities must comply with extensive measures to assure its facilities do not manage used parts washing solvent that is subject to regulation as hazardous waste and pay civil penalties totaling $1,162,500.

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.