118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7023 
AN ACT 
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to pro-
vide regulatory and judicial certainty for regulated enti-
ties and communities, increase transparency, and pro-
mote water quality, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Creating Confidence 
in Clean Water Permitting Act’’. 
SEC. 2. WATER QUALITY CRITERIA DEVELOPMENT AND 
TRANSPARENCY. 
(a) 
INFORMATION
AND
GUIDELINES.—Section 
304(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
U.S.C. 1314(a)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(10) 
ADMINISTRATIVE
PROCEDURE.—After 
the date of enactment of this paragraph, the Admin-
istrator shall issue any new or revised water quality 
criteria under paragraph (1) or (9) by rule.’’. 
(b) ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE
AND JUDICIAL 
REVIEW.—Section 509(b)(1) of the Federal Water Pollu-
tion Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1369(b)(1)) is amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘section 402, and’’ and inserting 
‘‘section 402,’’; and 
(2) by inserting ‘‘and (H) in issuing any cri-
teria 
for 
water 
quality 
pursuant 
to 
section 
304(a)(10),’’ after ‘‘strategy under section 304(l),’’. 
SEC. 3. FEDERAL GENERAL PERMITS. 
Section 402(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Con-
trol Act (33 U.S.C. 1342(a)) is amended by adding at the 
end the following:
‘‘(6)(A) The Administrator is authorized to issue gen-
eral permits under this section for discharges of similar 
types from similar sources. 
‘‘(B) The Administrator may require submission of 
a notice of intent to be covered under a general permit 
issued under this section, including additional information 
that the Administrator determines necessary. 
‘‘(C) If a general permit issued under this section will 
expire and the Administrator decides not to issue a new 
general permit for discharges similar to those covered by 
the expiring general permit, the Administrator shall pub-
lish in the Federal Register a notice of such decision at 
least two years prior to the expiration of the general per-
mit. 
‘‘(D) If a general permit issued under this section 
expires and the Administrator has not published a notice 
in accordance with subparagraph (C), until such time as 
the Administrator issues a new general permit for dis-
charges similar to those covered by the expired general 
permit, the Administrator shall— 
‘‘(i) continue to apply the terms, conditions, 
and requirements of the expired general permit to 
any discharge that was covered by the expired gen-
eral permit; and
‘‘(ii) apply such terms, conditions, and require-
ments to any discharge that would have been cov-
ered by the expired general permit (in accordance 
with any relevant requirements for such coverage) if 
the discharge had occurred before such expiration.’’. 
SEC. 4. NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION 
SYSTEM (NPDES) TERMS. 
Section 402(b)(1)(B) of the Federal Water Pollution 
Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1342(b)(1)(B)) is amended to read 
as follows: 
‘‘(B) are for fixed terms— 
‘‘(i) not exceeding 10 years, for a permit 
issued to a State or municipality; and 
‘‘(ii) not exceeding 5 years, for a permit 
issued to any person not described in clause (i); 
and’’. 
SEC. 5. CONFIDENCE IN CLEAN WATER PERMITS. 
(a) COMPLIANCE WITH PERMITS.—Section 402(k) of 
the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1342(k)) is amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘(k) Compliance with’’ and in-
serting the following: 
‘‘(k) COMPLIANCE WITH PERMITS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 
compliance with’’; and
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(2) SCOPE.—For purposes of paragraph (1), 
compliance with the conditions of a permit issued 
under this section shall be considered compliance 
with respect to a discharge of— 
‘‘(A) any pollutant for which an effluent 
limitation is included in the permit; and 
‘‘(B) any pollutant for which an effluent 
limitation is not included in the permit that 
is— 
‘‘(i) specifically identified as controlled 
or monitored through indicator parameters 
in the permit, the fact sheet for the per-
mit, or the administrative record relating 
to the permit; 
‘‘(ii) specifically identified during the 
permit application process as present in 
discharges to which the permit will apply; 
or 
‘‘(iii) whether or not specifically iden-
tified in the permit or during the permit 
application process— 
‘‘(I) 
present 
in 
any 
waste 
streams or processes of the point 
source to which the permit applies,
which waste streams or processes are 
specifically identified during the per-
mit application process; or 
‘‘(II) otherwise within the scope 
of any operations of the point source 
to which the permit applies, which 
scope of operations is specifically iden-
tified during the permit application 
process.’’. 
(b) TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS.—Section 402(l)(3) of 
the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1342(l)(3)) is amended— 
(1) in subparagraph (B)— 
(A) by striking ‘‘section 402’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘this section’’; and 
(B) by striking ‘‘federal’’ and inserting 
‘‘Federal’’; and 
(2) in subparagraph (C)— 
(A) by striking ‘‘Section’’ and inserting 
‘‘section’’; 
(B) by striking ‘‘402(p)(6)’’ and inserting 
‘‘subsection (p)(6)’’; 
(C) by striking ‘‘402(l)(3)(A),’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘subparagraph (A),’’; and
(D) by striking ‘‘402(l)(3)(A).’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘such subparagraph.’’. 
(c) EXPRESSION OF WATER QUALITY-BASED EFFLU-
ENT LIMITATIONS.—Section 402 of the Federal Water 
Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1342) is amended by 
adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(t) EXPRESSION OF WATER QUALITY-BASED EF-
FLUENT LIMITATIONS.—If the Administrator (or a State, 
in the case of a permit program approved by the Adminis-
trator) determines that a water quality-based limitation 
on a discharge of a pollutant is necessary to include in 
a permit under this section in addition to any appropriate 
technology-based effluent limitations included in such per-
mit, the Administrator (or the State) may include such 
water quality-based limitation in such permit only in the 
form of an effluent limitation that specifies— 
‘‘(1) the pollutant to which it applies; and 
‘‘(2) the numerical limit on the discharge of 
such pollutant, or the precise waterbody conditions 
to be attained with respect to such pollutant, re-
quired to comply with the permit.’’. 
SEC. 6. REDUCING PERMITTING UNCERTAINTY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 404(c) of the Federal 
Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344(c)) is 
amended—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 
other provision of this section, the Secretary 
shall maintain general permits on a nationwide 
basis for linear infrastructure projects that do 
not result in the loss of greater than 1⁄2-acre of 
waters of the United States for each single and 
complete project (as defined in section 330.2 of 
title 33, Code of Federal Regulations (as in ef-
fect on the date of enactment of this para-
graph)). 
‘‘(B) DEFINITION OF LINEAR INFRASTRUC-
TURE PROJECT.—In this paragraph, the term 
‘linear infrastructure project’ means a project 
to carry out any activity required for the con-
struction, expansion, maintenance, modification, 
or removal of infrastructure and associated fa-
cility for the transmission from a point of origin 
to a terminal point of communications or elec-
tricity or the transportation from a point of ori-
gin to a terminal point of people, water, waste-
water, carbon dioxide, or fuel or hydrocarbons 
(in the form of a liquid, liquescent, gaseous, or 
slurry substance or supercritical fluid), includ-
ing oil and gas pipeline facilities.
‘‘(5) REISSUANCE OF NATIONWIDE PERMITS.— 
In determining whether to reissue a general permit 
issued under this subsection on a nationwide basis— 
‘‘(A) no consultation with an applicable 
State pursuant to section 6(a) of the Endan-
gered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1535(a)) 
is required; 
‘‘(B) no consultation with a Federal agen-
cy pursuant to section 7(a)(2) of such Act (16 
U.S.C. 1536(a)(2)) is required; and 
‘‘(C) the requirements of section 102(2)(C) 
of the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C)) shall be satisfied 
by preparing an environmental assessment with 
respect to such general permit.’’. 
(b) ADMINISTRATION OF NATIONWIDE PERMIT PRO-
GRAM.—In carrying out section 404(e) of the Federal 
Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344), the Sec-
retary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, 
may not finalize or implement any modification to— 
(1) general condition 15 (relating to single and 
complete projects), as included in the final rule titled 
‘‘Reissuance and Modification of Nationwide Per-
mits’’ and published on January 13, 2021, by the
Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers (86 
Fed. Reg. 2868); 
(2) the definition of single and complete linear 
project, as included in such final rule (86 Fed. Reg. 
2877); or 
(3) the definition of single and complete 
project, as included in section 330.2 of title 33, Code 
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the date of 
enactment of this Act). 
SEC. 8. JUDICIAL REVIEW TIMELINE CLARITY. 
Section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act (33 U.S.C. 1344) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating subsection (t) as sub-
section (u); 
(2) in subsection (u), as so redesignated, by 
striking ‘‘Nothing in the section’’ and inserting 
‘‘SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this section’’; 
and 
(3) by inserting after subsection (s) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(t) JUDICIAL REVIEW.— 
‘‘(1) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 
applicable provision of law relating to statutes
of limitations, an action seeking judicial review 
of— 
‘‘(i) an individual or general permit 
issued under this section shall be filed not 
later than the date that is 60 days after 
the date on which the permit was issued; 
and 
‘‘(ii) verification that an activity is au-
thorized by a general permit issued under 
this section shall be filed not later than the 
date that is 60 days after the date on 
which such verification was issued. 
‘‘(B) SAVINGS
PROVISION.—Nothing in 
subparagraph (A) may be construed to author-
ize an action seeking judicial review of the 
structure of, or authorization for, a State per-
mit program approved pursuant to this section. 
‘‘(2) LIMITATION ON COMMENCEMENT OF CER-
TAIN
ACTIONS.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, no action described in paragraph (1)(A) 
may be commenced unless the action— 
‘‘(A) is filed by a party that submitted a 
comment, during the public comment period for 
the administrative proceedings related to the 
applicable action described in such paragraph,
which comment was sufficiently detailed to put 
the Secretary or the State, as applicable, on no-
tice of the issue upon which the party seeks ju-
dicial review; and 
‘‘(B) is related to such comment. 
‘‘(3) REMEDY.—If a court determines that the 
Secretary or the State, as applicable, did not comply 
with the requirements of this section in issuing an 
individual or general permit under this section, or in 
verifying that an activity is authorized by a general 
permit issued under this section, as applicable— 
‘‘(A) the court shall remand the matter to 
the Secretary or the State, as applicable, for 
further proceedings consistent with the court’s 
determination; 
‘‘(B) with respect to a determination re-
garding the issuance of an individual or general 
permit under this section, the court may not va-
cate, revoke, enjoin, or otherwise limit the per-
mit, unless the court finds that activities au-
thorized under the permit would present an im-
minent and substantial danger to human health 
or the environment for which there is no other 
equitable remedy available under the law; and
‘‘(C) with respect to a determination re-
garding a verification that an activity is author-
ized by a general permit issued under this sec-
tion, the court may not enjoin the activity, un-
less the court finds that the activity would 
present an imminent and substantial danger to 
human health or the environment for which 
there is no other equitable remedy available 
under the law. 
‘‘(4) TIMELINE TO ACT ON COURT ORDER.—If 
a court remands a matter under paragraph (2), the 
court shall set and enforce a reasonable schedule 
and deadline, which may not exceed 180 days from 
the date on which the court remands such matter, 
except as otherwise required by law, for the Sec-
retary or the State, as applicable, to take such ac-
tions as the court may order.’’. 
SEC. 9. LIMITATION ON PERMIT ISSUANCE. 
Title IV of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 
(33 U.S.C. 1341 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘SEC. 407. LIMITATION ON PERMIT ISSUANCE. 
‘‘(a) PROHIBITION.—No permit may be issued under 
this title for any discharge from a point source that is 
owned or operated by an entity that—