EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on draft guidance to expand the availability of virucidal claims for antimicrobial pesticides and provide framework for registrants who seek to make such claims.

EPA entered into a proposed settlement agreement under the CWA and the APA in Gunpowder Riverkeeper v. Regan, No. 1:20-cv-02063 (D.D.C.), concerning allegations that the Agency's approval of Maryland’s submission of TMDLs of PCBs for the Gunpowder and Bird Rivers was arbitrary and capricious in violation of the APA.

EPA entered into a proposed stipulated partial settlement agreement under the ESA in Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, No. 3:11-cv-0293 (N.D. Cal.), which would require the Agency to take steps by specified deadlines in connection with its alleged failure to comply with certain duties under the Act.

EPA entered into a proposed consent decree under the CAA in Sierra Club v. EPA, No. 3:23-cv-00780-TLT (N.D. Cal.), that would establish deadlines for the Agency to take final actions in connection with its alleged failure to promulgate a federal implementation plan within two years of finding that Texas failed to submit a SIP for the Rusk/Panola 2010 sulfur dioxide NAAQS nonattainment area.

United States v. J.R. Simplot Co., No. 1:23-cv-322 (D. Wyo. July 11, 2023). A settling RCRA, CAA, CERCLA, and EPCRA defendant must pay a $1.5 million civil penalty; implement compliance projects at its phosphoric acid and fertilizer manufacturing plant located near Pocatello, Idaho, known as the Don Plant; comply with specified requirements for management of wastes or other materials at the facility and in the facility’s phosphogypsum stack system; comply with specified requirements for the eventual closure and long-term care of the facility and provide financial assurance to cover the estimated cost of such obligations; continue groundwater and surface monitoring and reporting as required by a prior CERCLA consent decree; comply with specified operational practices for air emissions controls and replace the existing cooling towers with cooling pond(s) to reduce fluoride emissions into the air from the Don Plant; and revise the annual Toxic Chemical Release Inventory Reporting Forms it submitted under EPCRA for years 2004-2012 to include estimates of compounds that previously were not included.

SIP Proposal: Connecticut (revisions to the state’s definition of "severe non-attainment area for ozone").

The Mine Safety and Health Administration proposed to amend its existing regulations to better protect mine workers against occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica, a carcinogenic hazard, and to improve respiratory protection for all airborne hazards.

SIP Proposal: California (revisions concerning the 1997 annual fine particulate matter NAAQS for the San Joaquin Valley nonattainment area).

EPA added a diisononyl phthalate category to the list of toxic chemicals subject to the reporting requirements under EPCRA and the Pollution Prevention Act.

EPA finalized the rescission of the rule entitled “Increasing Consistency and Transparency in Considering Benefits and Costs in the Clean Air Act Rulemaking Process,” because the changes advanced by the rule were inadvisable, untethered to the CAA, and not necessary to effectuate the purposes of the Act.