IIB 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 2452 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
JUNE 24 (legislative day, JUNE 23), 2008 
Received 
AUGUST 1, 2008 
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works 
AN ACT 
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to ensure 
that publicly owned treatment works monitor for and 
report sewer overflows, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Sewage Overflow Com-
munity Right-to-Know Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
Section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act (33 U.S.C. 1362) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘(25) SANITARY SEWER OVERFLOW.—The term 
‘sanitary sewer overflow’ means an overflow, spill, 
release, or diversion of wastewater from a sanitary 
sewer system. Such term does not include municipal 
combined sewer overflows or other discharges from 
a municipal combined storm and sanitary sewer sys-
tem and does not include wastewater backups into 
buildings caused by a blockage or other malfunction 
of a building lateral that is privately owned. Such 
term includes overflows or releases of wastewater 
that reach waters of the United States, overflows or 
releases of wastewater in the United States that do 
not reach waters of the United States, and waste-
water backups into buildings that are caused by 
blockages or flow conditions in a sanitary sewer 
other than a building lateral. 
‘‘(26) TREATMENT WORKS.—The term ‘treat-
ment works’ has the meaning given that term in sec-
tion 212.’’. 
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SEC. 3. MONITORING, REPORTING, AND PUBLIC NOTIFICA-
TION OF SEWER OVERFLOWS. 
Section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act (33 U.S.C. 1342) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘(r) SEWER OVERFLOW MONITORING, REPORTING, 
AND NOTIFICATIONS.— 
‘‘(1) GENERAL REQUIREMENTS.—After the last 
day of the 180-day period beginning on the date on 
which regulations are issued under paragraph (4), a 
permit issued, renewed, or modified under this sec-
tion by the Administrator or the State, as the case 
may be, for a publicly owned treatment works shall 
require, at a minimum, beginning on the date of the 
issuance, modification, or renewal, that the owner or 
operator of the treatment works— 
‘‘(A) institute and utilize a feasible meth-
odology, technology, or management program 
for monitoring sewer overflows to alert the 
owner or operator to the occurrence of a sewer 
overflow in a timely manner; 
‘‘(B) in the case of a sewer overflow that 
has the potential to affect human health, notify 
the public of the overflow as soon as practicable 
but not later than 24 hours after the time the 
owner or operator knows of the overflow; 
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‘‘(C) in the case of a sewer overflow that 
may imminently and substantially endanger 
human health, notify public health authorities 
and other affected entities, such as public water 
systems, of the overflow immediately after the 
owner or operator knows of the overflow; 
‘‘(D) report each sewer overflow on its dis-
charge monitoring report to the Administrator 
or the State, as the case may be, by describ-
ing— 
‘‘(i) the magnitude, duration, and sus-
pected cause of the overflow; 
‘‘(ii) the steps taken or planned to re-
duce, eliminate, or prevent recurrence of 
the overflow; and 
‘‘(iii) the steps taken or planned to 
mitigate the impact of the overflow; and 
‘‘(E) annually report to the Administrator 
or the State, as the case may be, the total num-
ber of sewer overflows in a calendar year, in-
cluding— 
‘‘(i) the details of how much waste-
water was released per incident; 
‘‘(ii) the duration of each sewer over-
flow; 
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‘‘(iii) the location of the overflow and 
any potentially affected receiving waters; 
‘‘(iv) the responses taken to clean up 
the overflow; and 
‘‘(v) the actions taken to mitigate im-
pacts and avoid further sewer overflows at 
the site. 
‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.— 
‘‘(A) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.—The 
notification requirements of paragraphs (1)(B) 
and (1)(C) shall not apply a sewer overflow that 
is a wastewater backup into a single-family resi-
dence. 
‘‘(B) REPORTING
REQUIREMENTS.—The 
reporting requirements of paragraphs (1)(D) 
and (1)(E) shall not apply to a sewer overflow 
that is a release of wastewater that occurs in 
the course of maintenance of the treatment 
works, is managed consistently with the treat-
ment works’ best management practices, and is 
intended to prevent sewer overflows. 
‘‘(3) REPORT TO EPA.—Each State shall pro-
vide to the Administrator annually a summary of 
sewer overflows that occurred in the State. 
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