II 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 147 

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to establish a deadline 

for restricting sewage dumping into the Great Lakes and to fund programs and activities for improving wastewater discharges into the Great 

Lakes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 25 (legislative day, JANUARY 5), 2011 

Mr. KIRK (for himself and Mr. DURBIN) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public 

Works 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to establish a deadline for restricting sewage dumping into the 

Great Lakes and to fund programs and activities for 

improving wastewater discharges into the Great Lakes. 

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 ‘‘Great Lakes Water 

5 Protection Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON SEWAGE DUMPING INTO THE 

2 GREAT LAKES. 

3 Section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 

4 Act (33 U.S.C. 1342) is amended by adding at the end 

5 the following: 

6 ‘‘(s) PROHIBITION ON SEWAGE DUMPING INTO THE

7 GREAT LAKES.— 

8 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 

9 ‘‘(A) BYPASS.—The term ‘bypass’ means 

10 an intentional diversion of waste streams to by11 pass any portion of a treatment facility which 

12 results in a discharge into the Great Lakes. 

13 ‘‘(B) GREAT LAKES.—The term ‘Great 

14 Lakes’ has the meaning given the term in sec15 tion 118(a)(3). 

16 ‘‘(C) TREATMENT FACILITY.—The term 

17 ‘treatment facility’ includes all wastewater 

18 treatment units used by a publicly owned treat19 ment works to meet secondary treatment stand20 ards or higher, as required to attain water qual21 ity standards, under any operating conditions. 

22 ‘‘(D) TREATMENT WORKS.—The term 

23 ‘treatment works’ has the meaning given the 

24 term in section 212. 

25 ‘‘(2) PROHIBITION.—A publicly owned treat26 ment works is prohibited from intentionally diverting 


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1 waste streams to bypass any portion of a treatment 

2 facility at the treatment works if the diversion re3 sults in a discharge into the Great Lakes unless— 

4 ‘‘(A)(i) the bypass is unavoidable to pre5 vent loss of life, personal injury, or severe prop6 erty damage; 

7 ‘‘(ii) there is not a feasible alternative to 

8 the bypass, such as the use of auxiliary treat9 ment facilities, retention of untreated wastes, or 

10 maintenance during normal periods of equip11 ment downtime; and 

12 ‘‘(iii) the treatment works provides notice 

13 of the bypass in accordance with this sub14 section; or 

15 ‘‘(B) the bypass does not cause effluent 

16 limitations to be exceeded, and the bypass is for 

17 essential maintenance to ensure efficient oper18 ation of the treatment facility. 

19 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—The requirement of para20 graph (2)(A)(ii) is not satisfied if— 

21 ‘‘(A) adequate back-up equipment should 

22 have been installed in the exercise of reasonable 

23 engineering judgment to prevent the bypass; 

24 and 


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1 ‘‘(B) the bypass occurred during normal 

2 periods of equipment downtime or preventive 

3 maintenance. 

4 ‘‘(4) NOTICE REQUIREMENTS.—A publicly 

5 owned treatment works shall provide to the Adminis6 trator (or to the State, in the case of a State that 

7 has a permit program approved under this sec8 tion)— 

9 ‘‘(A) prior notice of an anticipated bypass; 

10 and 

11 ‘‘(B) notice of an unanticipated bypass by 

12 not later than 24 hours after the time at which 

13 the treatment works first becomes aware of the 

14 bypass. 

15 ‘‘(5) FOLLOW-UP NOTICE REQUIREMENTS.—In 

16 the case of an unanticipated bypass for which a pub17 licly owned treatment works provides notice under 

18 paragraph (4)(B), the treatment works shall provide 

19 to the Administrator (or to the State in the case of 

20 a State that has a permit program approved under 

21 this section), not later than 5 days following the 

22 date on which the treatment works first becomes 

23 aware of the bypass, a follow-up notice containing a 

24 description of— 

25 ‘‘(A) the cause of the bypass; 


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1 ‘‘(B) the reason for the bypass; 

2 ‘‘(C) the period of bypass, including the 

3 exact dates and times; 

4 ‘‘(D) if the bypass has not been corrected, 

5 the anticipated time the bypass is expected to 

6 continue; 

7 ‘‘(E) the volume of the discharge resulting 

8 from the bypass; 

9 ‘‘(F) any public access areas that may be 

10 impacted by the bypass; and 

11 ‘‘(G) steps taken or planned to reduce, 

12 eliminate, and prevent reoccurrence of the by13 pass. 

14 ‘‘(6) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF NOTICES.—A 

15 publicly owned treatment works providing a notice 

16 under this subsection, and the Administrator (or the 

17 State, in the case of a State that has a permit pro18 gram approved under this section) receiving such a 

19 notice, shall each post the notice, by not later than 

20 48 hours after providing or receiving the notice (as 

21 the case may be), in a searchable database accessible 

22 on the Internet. 

23 ‘‘(7) SEWAGE BLENDING.—Bypasses prohibited 

24 by this section include bypasses resulting in dis25 charges from a publicly owned treatment works that 


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1 consist of effluent routed around treatment units 

2 and thereafter blended together with effluent from 

3 treatment units prior to discharge. 

4 ‘‘(8) IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 180 

5 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, 

6 the Administrator shall establish procedures to en7 sure that permits issued under this section (or under 

8 a State permit program approved under this section) 

9 to a publicly owned treatment works include require10 ments to implement this subsection. 

11 ‘‘(9) INCREASE IN MAXIMUM CIVIL PENALTY

12 FOR VIOLATIONS OCCURRING AFTER JANUARY 1, 

13 2031.—Notwithstanding section 309, in the case of a 

14 violation of this subsection occurring on or after 

15 January 1, 2031, or any violation of a permit limita16 tion or condition implementing this subsection occur17 ring after such date, the maximum civil penalty that 

18 shall be assessed for the violation shall be $100,000 

19 per day for each day the violation occurs. 

20 ‘‘(10) APPLICABILITY.—This subsection shall 

21 apply to a bypass occurring after the last day of the 

22 1-year period beginning on the date of enactment of 

23 this subsection.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF GREAT LAKES CLEANUP FUND. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title V of the Federal Water Pol3 lution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) is amended— 

4 (1) by redesignating section 519 (33 U.S.C. 

5 1251 note) as section 520; and 

6 (2) by inserting after section 518 (33 U.S.C. 

7 1377) the following: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 519. ESTABLISHMENT OF GREAT LAKES CLEANUP 

9 FUND. 

10 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

11 ‘‘(1) FUND.—The term ‘Fund’ means the Great 

12 Lakes Cleanup Fund established by subsection (b). 

13 ‘‘(2) GREAT LAKES; GREAT LAKES STATES.— 

14 The terms ‘Great Lakes’ and ‘Great Lakes States’ 

15 have the meanings given the terms in section 

16 118(a)(3). 

17 ‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT OF FUND.—There is estab18 lished in the Treasury of the United States a trust fund 

19 to be known as the ‘Great Lakes Cleanup Fund’ (in this 

20 section referred to as the ‘Fund’). 

21 ‘‘(c) TRANSFERS TO FUND.—Effective January 1, 

22 2031, there are authorized to be appropriated to the Fund 

23 amounts equivalent to the penalties collected for violations 

24 of section 402(s). 

25 ‘‘(d) ADMINISTRATION OF FUND.—The Adminis26 trator shall administer the Fund. 


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1 ‘‘(e) USE OF FUNDS.—The Administrator shall— 

2 ‘‘(1) make the amounts in the Fund available 

3 to the Great Lakes States for use in carrying out 

4 programs and activities for improving wastewater 

5 discharges into the Great Lakes, including habitat 

6 protection and wetland restoration; and 

7 ‘‘(2) allocate those amounts among the Great 

8 Lakes States based on the proportion that— 

9 ‘‘(A) the amount attributable to a Great 

10 Lakes State for penalties collected for violations 

11 of section 402(s); bears to 

12 ‘‘(B) the total amount of those penalties 

13 attributable to all Great Lakes States. 

14 ‘‘(f) PRIORITY.—In selecting programs and activities 

15 to be funded using amounts made available under this sec16 tion, a Great Lakes State shall give priority consideration 

17 to programs and activities that address violations of sec18 tion 402(s) resulting in the collection of penalties.’’. 

19 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT TO STATE REVOLV20 ING FUND PROGRAM.—Section 607 of the Federal Water 

21 Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1387) is amended— 

22 (1) by inserting ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—’’ before 

23 ‘‘There is’’; and 

24 (2) by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘(b) TREATMENT OF GREAT LAKES CLEANUP

2 FUND.—For purposes of this title, amounts made avail3 able from the Great Lakes Cleanup Fund under section 

4 519 shall be treated as funds authorized to be appro5 priated to carry out this title and as funds made available 

6 under this title, except that the funds shall be made avail7 able to the Great Lakes States in accordance with section 

8 519.’’. 

Æ 


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