NMFS proposed to change the status of pillar coral from threatened to endangered under the ESA, based on population declines and susceptibility to a recently emerged coral disease.

FWS determined endangered status for the South Sierra and South Coast distinct population segments (DPSs) of the foothill yellow-legged frog and threatened status for the species’ North Feather and Central Coast DPSs under the ESA.

SIP Proposal: California (issuance of permits for new and modified major sources in nonattainment areas in the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District).

NMFS designated and authorized the release of nonessential experimental populations of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon in the McCloud and Upper Sacramento Rivers upstream of Shasta Dam, California, and established a limited set of take exceptions for the experimental populations under the ESA.

United States v. TCI Pacific Communications, LLC, No. 2:23-cv-06076 (D.N.J. Aug. 21, 2023). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CERCLA defendant must pay $950,000 for past response costs arising from removal action by the EPA to address lead-contaminated soil at the Barth Smelting Corporation Site in Newark, New Jersey.

SIP Proposal: New York (reasonably available control technology requirements for the 2008 and 2015 eight-hour ozone NAAQS, ozone transport region requirements for the 2015 ozone NAAQS, ozone nonattainment new source review program requirements, nonattainment emission inventory requirements, clean fuels for fleets requirements, and reasonable further progress plans and motor vehicle emissions budgets for the 2008 ozone NAAQS).

SIP Proposal: Maryland (regional haze).

EPA finalized amendments to the new source performance standards for electric arc furnaces and argon-oxygen decarburization vessels in the steel industry pursuant to the review required by the CAA.

EPA announced the availability of data on new or revised default allocations of Cross-State Air Pollution Rule Nitrogen Oxide Ozone Season Group 3 emissions allowances to existing electricity generating units for the 2023-2025 control periods.

United States v. Ford, No. 19 Civ. 9600 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 18, 2023). A settling CWA defendant that filled wetlands, channelized streams, and discharged process wastewater and other pollutants from a concentrated animal feeding operation without a permit and violated the terms of a construction stormwater permit must restore approximately 18 acres of wetlands and two streams and pay a $200,000 civil penalty.