IB 

Union Calendar No. 458 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 2452 

[Report No. 110–723] 

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to ensure that sewage 

treatment plants monitor for and report discharges of raw sewage, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 23, 2007 

Mr. BISHOP of New York (for himself, Mr. LOBIONDO, Ms. BORDALLO, Mr. 

GRIJALVA, Ms. NORTON, Mr. NADLER, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mrs. MALONEY of 

New York, Mr. LANTOS, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Mr. SAXTON, 

and Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland) introduced the following bill; which was 

referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

JUNE 19, 2008 

Additional sponsors: Mr. PAYNE, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. KUCINICH, 

Mr. HINCHEY, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. FILNER, Mr. PALLONE, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. MCNULTY, Mr. 

GILCHREST, Mr. HOLT, Ms. LEE, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. PLATTS, Mr. 

BOSWELL, Mr. CARNAHAN, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. WILSON of 

South Carolina, Mr. BRALEY of Iowa, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. KING of New 

York, Mr. SIRES, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. ROTHMAN, Mr. 

CAPUANO, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. LEVIN, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. 

DELAURO, Mr. WYNN, Ms. MCCOLLUM of Minnesota, Mr. ARCURI, Mr. 

SHAYS, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. COHEN, Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut, Mr. 

WEXLER, Mr. HINOJOSA, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. KLEIN of Florida, Mr. 

ISRAEL, Mr. SESTAK, and Mr. RUPPERSBERGER

JUNE 19, 2008 

Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee of the Whole House 

on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 


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[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on May 23, 2007] 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to ensure 

that sewage treatment plants monitor for and report 

discharges of raw sewage, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Sewage Overflow Com5 munity Right-to-Know Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 Section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 

8 (33 U.S.C. 1362) is amended by adding at the end the fol9 lowing: 

10 ‘‘(25) SANITARY SEWER OVERFLOW.—The term 

11 ‘sanitary sewer overflow’ means an overflow, spill, re12 lease, or diversion of wastewater from a sanitary 

13 sewer system. Such term does not include municipal 

14 combined sewer overflows or other discharges from a 

15 municipal combined storm and sanitary sewer system 

16 and does not include wastewater backups into build17 ings caused by a blockage or other malfunction of a 

18 building lateral that is privately owned. Such term 


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1 includes overflows or releases of wastewater that reach 

2 waters of the United States, overflows or releases of 

3 wastewater in the United States that do not reach 

4 waters of the United States, and wastewater backups 

5 into buildings that are caused by blockages or flow 

6 conditions in a sanitary sewer other than a building 

7 lateral. 

8 ‘‘(26) TREATMENT WORKS.—The term ‘treatment 

9 works’ has the meaning given that term in section 

10 212.’’. 

11 SEC. 3. MONITORING, REPORTING, AND PUBLIC NOTIFICA12 TION OF SEWER OVERFLOWS. 

13 Section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 

14 (33 U.S.C. 1342) is amended by adding at the end the fol15 lowing: 

16 ‘‘(r) SEWER OVERFLOW NOTIFICATIONS.— 

17 ‘‘(1) GENERAL REQUIREMENTS.—Not later than 

18 one year after the date of enactment of this subsection, 

19 the Administrator shall take such action as may be 

20 necessary to ensure that each permit issued under this 

21 section before, on, or after the date of enactment of 

22 this subsection for a publicly owned treatment works 

23 shall require, at a minimum, that the owner or oper24 ator of the treatment works— 


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1 ‘‘(A) institute and utilize a feasible method2 ology, technology, or management program to 

3 alert the owner or operator to the occurrence of 

4 a sewer overflow in a timely manner; 

5 ‘‘(B) notify the public of a sewer overflow as 

6 soon as practicable, but not later than 24 hours 

7 after the time the owner or operator becomes 

8 aware of such overflow, if such overflow has the 

9 potential to affect human health, except for over10 flows that are wastewater backups into single11 family residences; 

12 ‘‘(C) immediately notify public health au13 thorities and other affected entities, such as pub14 lic water systems, of any sewer overflow that 

15 may imminently and substantially endanger 

16 human health, except for overflows that are 

17 wastewater backups into single-family residences; 

18 ‘‘(D) report each sewer overflow (other than 

19 a release of wastewater that occurs in the course 

20 of maintenance of the treatment works, is man21 aged consistently with the treatment works’ best 

22 management practices, and is intended to pre23 vent overflows) on its monthly discharge moni24 toring report to the Administrator or the State, 

25 as the case may be, by describing— 


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1 ‘‘(i) the magnitude, duration, and sus2 pected cause of the overflow; 

3 ‘‘(ii) the steps taken or planned to re4 duce, eliminate, or prevent recurrence of the 

5 overflow; and 

6 ‘‘(iii) the steps taken or planned to 

7 mitigate the impact of the overflow; and 

8 ‘‘(E) report to the Administrator or the 

9 State, as the case may be, the total number of 

10 sewer overflows (other than a release of waste11 water that occurs in the course of maintenance 

12 of the treatment works, is managed consistently 

13 with the treatment works’ best management 

14 practices, and is intended to prevent overflows) 

15 in a calendar year, including— 

16 ‘‘(i) the details of how much waste17 water was released per incident; 

18 ‘‘(ii) the duration of each sewer over19 flow; 

20 ‘‘(iii) the location of the overflow and 

21 any potentially affected receiving waters; 

22 ‘‘(iv) the responses taken to clean up 

23 the overflow; and 


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1 ‘‘(v) the actions taken to mitigate im2 pacts and avoid further sewer overflows at 

3 the site. 

4 ‘‘(2) REPORT TO EPA.—If a State receives a re5 port under paragraph (1)(E), the State shall report 

6 to the Administrator annually, in summary, the de7 tails of reported sewer overflows that occurred in that 

8 State. 

9 ‘‘(3) RULEMAKING BY EPA.—Not later than one 

10 year after the date of enactment of this subsection, the 

11 Administrator shall, after providing notice and the 

12 opportunity for public comment, issue regulations 

13 to— 

14 ‘‘(A) establish a set of criteria to guide own15 ers and operators of publicly owned treatment 

16 works in assessing whether a sewer overflow has 

17 the potential to affect human health or may im18 minently and substantially endanger human 

19 health; and 

20 ‘‘(B) define the terms ‘feasible’ and ‘timely’ 

21 as such terms apply to paragraph (1)(A). 

22 ‘‘(4) SITE SPECIFIC CONDITIONS.—The defini23 tions under paragraph (3)(B) shall include site spe24 cific conditions. 

25 ‘‘(5) DEFINITIONS.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) SEWER OVERFLOW.—In this sub2 section, the term ‘sewer overflow’ means a sani3 tary sewer overflow or a municipal combined 

4 sewer overflow. 

5 ‘‘(B) SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCE.—In this 

6 subsection, the term ‘single-family residence’ 

7 means an individual dwelling unit, including an 

8 apartment, condominium, house, or dormitory. 

9 Such term does not include the common areas of 

10 a multi-dwelling structure.’’. 

11 SEC. 4. ELIGIBILITY FOR ASSISTANCE. 

12 (a) PURPOSE OF STATE REVOLVING FUND.—Section 

13 601(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 

14 U.S.C. 1381(a)) is amended— 

15 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ the first place it appears; 

16 and 

17 (2) by inserting after ‘‘section 320’’ the fol18 lowing: ‘‘, and (4) for the implementation of require19 ments to monitor for sewer overflows under section 

20 402’’. 

21 (b) WATER POLLUTION CONTROL REVOLVING LOAN

22 FUNDS.—Section 603(c) of the Federal Water Pollution 

23 Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1383(c)) is amended— 

24 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ the first place it appears; 

25 and 


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1 (2) by inserting after ‘‘section 320 of this Act’’ 

2 the following: ‘‘, and (4) for the implementation of re3 quirements to monitor for sewer overflows under sec4 tion 402 of this Act’’. 

5 SEC. 5. LIMITATION ON STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION. 

6 Nothing in this Act, including any amendment made 

7 by this Act, shall be construed— 

8 (1) to limit the ability of any State from imple9 menting and enforcing more stringent monitoring 

10 and notification standards than those required by the 

11 Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 

12 et seq.); or 

13 (2) to supplant or diminish obligations to com14 ply with all other requirements of the Federal Water 

15 Pollution Control Act. 

Amend the title so as to read: ‘‘A bill to amend the 

Federal Water Pollution Control Act to ensure that sewage treatment plants monitor for and report discharges 

of sewage, and for other purposes.’’. 


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Union Calendar No. 458 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 2452 

[Report No. 110

–723] 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 

other purposes. for and report discharges of raw sewage, and for to ensure that sewage treatment plants monitor 

JUNE 19, 2008 

Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee 

dered to be printed of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and orVerDate Aug 31 2005 02:16 Jun 20, 2008 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H2452.RH H2452

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