I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 54 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 6, 2009 

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

was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

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 (22 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) IN GENERAL.—A publicly owned treatment 

9 works is prohibited from intentionally diverting 

10 waste streams to bypass any portion of a treatment 

11 facility at the treatment works if the diversion re12 sults in a discharge into the Great Lakes unless— 

13 ‘‘(A)(i) the bypass is unavoidable to pre14 vent loss of life, personal injury, or severe prop15 erty damage; 

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

17 the bypass, such as the use of auxiliary treat18 ment facilities, retention of untreated wastes, or 

19 maintenance during normal periods of equip20 ment downtime; and 

21 ‘‘(iii) the treatment works provides notice 

22 of the bypass in accordance with the require23 ments of this subsection; or 

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

25 limitations to be exceeded, and the bypass is for 


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1 essential maintenance to ensure efficient oper2 ation of the treatment facility. 

3 ‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—The requirement of para4 graph (1)(A)(ii) is not satisfied if adequate back-up 

5 equipment should have been installed in the exercise 

6 of reasonable engineering judgment to prevent the 

7 bypass and the bypass occurred during normal peri8 ods of equipment downtime or preventive mainte9 nance. 

10 ‘‘(3) NOTICE REQUIREMENTS.—A publicly 

11 owned treatment works shall provide to the Adminis12 trator (or to the State in the case of a State that 

13 has a permit program approved under this sec14 tion)— 

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

16 and 

17 ‘‘(B) notice of an unanticipated bypass 

18 within 24 hours following the time the treat19 ment works first becomes aware of the bypass. 

20 ‘‘(4) FOLLOW-UP NOTICE REQUIREMENTS.—In 

21 the case of an unanticipated bypass for which a pub22 licly owned treatment works provides notice under 

23 paragraph (3)(B), the treatment works shall provide 

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

25 a State that has a permit program approved under 


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

2 date on which the treatment works first becomes 

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

4 description of— 

5 ‘‘(A) the cause of the bypass; 

6 ‘‘(B) the reason for the bypass; 

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

8 exact dates and times; 

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

10 the anticipated time the bypass is expected to 

11 continue; 

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

13 from the bypass; 

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

15 impacted by the bypass; and 

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

17 eliminate, and prevent reoccurrence of the by18 pass. 

19 ‘‘(5) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF NOTICES.—A 

20 publicly owned treatment works providing a notice 

21 under this subsection, and the Administrator (or the 

22 State in the case of a State that has a permit pro23 gram approved under this section) receiving such a 

24 notice, shall each post the notice, within 48 hours of 

25 providing or receiving the notice (as the case may 


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1 be), in a searchable database accessible on the Inter2 net. 

3 ‘‘(6) SEWAGE BLENDING.—Bypasses prohibited 

4 by this section include bypasses resulting in dis5 charges from a publicly owned treatment works that 

6 consist of effluent routed around treatment units 

7 and thereafter blended together with effluent from 

8 treatment units prior to discharge. 

9 ‘‘(7) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection, the fol10 lowing definitions apply: 

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

12 an intentional diversion of waste streams to by13 pass any portion of a treatment facility which 

14 results in a discharge into the Great Lakes. 

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

16 Lakes’ has the meaning given such term by sec17 tion 118(a)(3). 

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

19 ‘treatment facility’ includes all wastewater 

20 treatment units used by a publicly owned treat21 ment works to meet secondary treatment stand22 ards or higher, as required to attain water qual23 ity standards, under any operating conditions. 


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1 ‘‘(D) TREATMENT WORKS.—The term 

2 ‘treatment works’ has the meaning given that 

3 term in section 212. 

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 2029.—Notwithstanding any provision of section 309, 

14 in the case of a violation of this subsection occurring 

15 on or after January 1, 2029, or any violation of a 

16 permit limitation or condition implementing this 

17 subsection occurring after such date, the maximum 

18 civil penalty which shall be assessed for the violation 

19 shall be $100,000 per day for each day the violation 

20 occurs. 

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

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

23 one-year period beginning on the date of enactment 

24 of 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 by redesignating section 519 as section 520 and inserting 

5 after section 518 the following: 

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

7 FUND. 

8 ‘‘(a) CREATION OF FUND.—There is established in 

9 the Treasury of the United States a trust fund to be 

10 known as the ‘Great Lakes Cleanup Fund’ (in this section 

11 referred to as the ‘Fund’). 

12 ‘‘(b) TRANSFERS TO FUND.—Effective January 1, 

13 2029, there are authorized to be appropriated to the Fund 

14 amounts equivalent to the penalties collected for violations 

15 of section 402(s). 

16 ‘‘(c) ADMINISTRATION OF FUND.—The Adminis17 trator shall administer the Fund. 

18 ‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.—The Administrator shall make 

19 the amounts in the Fund available to the Great Lakes 

20 States for programs and activities for improving waste21 water discharges into the Great Lakes, including habitat 

22 protection and wetland restoration. The Administrator 

23 shall allocate such amounts among the Great Lakes States 

24 based on the proportional amount attributable to each 

25 Great Lakes State for penalties collected for violations of 

26 section 402(s). 


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1 ‘‘(e) PRIORITY.—In selecting programs and activities 

2 to be funded using amounts made available under this sec3 tion, a Great Lakes State shall give priority consideration 

4 to programs and activities that address violations of sec5 tion 402(s) resulting in the collection of penalties. 

6 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘Great 

7 Lakes’ and ‘Great Lakes States’ have the meanings given 

8 such terms in section 118(a)(3).’’. 

9 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT TO STATE REVOLV10 ING FUND PROGRAM.—Section 607 of such Act (33 

11 U.S.C. 1387) is amended— 

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

13 ‘‘There is’’; and 

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

15 ‘‘(b) TREATMENT OF GREAT LAKES CLEANUP

16 FUND.—For purposes of this title, amounts made avail17 able from the Great Lakes Cleanup Fund under section 

18 519 shall be treated as funds authorized to be appro19 priated to carry out this title and as funds made available 

20 under this title, except that such funds shall be made 

21 available to the Great Lakes States as provided in section 

22 519.’’. 

Æ 


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