I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3265 
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to reduce pollution result-
ing from impervious surfaces within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 20, 2009 
Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia (for himself and Ms. NORTON) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to reduce 
pollution resulting from impervious surfaces within the 
Chesapeake Bay watershed, 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 ‘‘Chesapeake Bay Res-
toration Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Between the years 1990 and 2000, the pop-
ulation of the Chesapeake Bay watershed increased 
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8 percent while impervious surface cover increased 
41 percent. 
(2) Suburban and urban stormwater runoff is 
the only major source of pollution in the Chesapeake 
Bay watershed that is increasing, as pollution from 
point sources and agriculture is decreasing. 
(3) States, local governments, developers, and 
nonprofit organizations have developed numerous de-
velopment techniques since the late 1990s, which use 
infiltration, plants, and stormwater harvesting tech-
niques to retain stormwater and associated sedi-
mentation and nutrient pollutants. 
(4) A study by the Environmental Protection 
Agency of low impact development projects in the 
United States found that low impact development 
stormwater management techniques are almost al-
ways less expensive than traditional stormwater 
management techniques. 
(5) Local governments throughout the Chesa-
peake Bay watershed are proactively implementing 
retention techniques and strict new requirements to 
reduce stormwater runoff. 
(6) The National Academy of Sciences rec-
ommends strong new regulations with respect to 
stormwater runoff and the provision of funding for 
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local stormwater regulation efforts and finds that re-
tention measures that infiltrate, evapotranspire and 
harvest stormwater are more effective than tradi-
tional stormwater management infrastructure at 
protecting and restoring stable hydrology. 
(7) Data from multiple jurisdictions with re-
spect to the health of fish and other organisms living 
in Chesapeake Bay tributaries suggest a strong neg-
ative correlation between impervious surface cover 
and stream health. 
(8) According to the Environmental Protection 
Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office, an aver-
age of 100 acres of forest are lost from the Chesa-
peake Bay watershed every day and forest cover 
within the watershed has declined from 95 percent 
to 58 percent. 
(9) Forests capture up to 85 percent of air-
borne 
nitrogen 
pollution 
and 
infiltrate 
or 
evapotranspirate between 90 percent and 95 percent 
of annual rainfall, preventing pollution associated 
with stormwater runoff. 
SEC. 3. REDUCTION OF POLLUTION RESULTING FROM IM-
PERVIOUS SURFACES. 
Section 117 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act (33 U.S.C. 1267) is amended— 
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(1) by redesignating subsection (j) as sub-
section (k); and 
(2) by inserting after subsection (i) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(j) REDUCTION OF POLLUTION RESULTING FROM 
IMPERVIOUS SURFACES.— 
‘‘(1) PERMITS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than Janu-
ary 1, 2009, each unit of local government 
within the Chesapeake Bay watershed that dis-
charges stormwater through a storm sewer sys-
tem, regardless of storm sewer system owner-
ship and, without regard to the size of the pop-
ulation shall obtain and comply with a permit 
under section 402(p). 
‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.—A permit under 
section 402(p) for a unit of local government 
within the Chesapeake Bay watershed shall in-
clude requirements to ensure that a project to 
develop land within the jurisdiction of such unit 
of local government, which affects land that is 
more than one acre in size and that is less than 
5 percent covered by impervious surfaces prior 
to the project, is carried out in a manner that 
not less than the volume of the 95th percentile 
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precipitation 
event 
shall 
infiltrate, 
evapotranspirate from, or be harvested and 
used on such site after the project is completed. 
‘‘(C) DEFINITION
OF
95TH
PERCENTILE 
PRECIPITATION
EVENT.—The 95th percentile 
precipitation event is the event whose precipita-
tion total is greater than or equal to 95 percent 
of all 24-hour storm events on an annual basis. 
‘‘(2) GRANT PROGRAM.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator is 
authorized to make grants to a unit of local 
government with a permit described under 
paragraph (1). 
‘‘(B) USES.—A grant under subparagraph 
(A) may be used by a unit of local government 
for the following: 
‘‘(i) Costs associated with complying 
with such permit. 
‘‘(ii) Costs associated with imple-
menting a project that is designed, con-
structed, and maintained to meet the rel-
evant performance standard of part (1)(B). 
‘‘(C) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—A grant 
for costs associated with implementing a low 
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impact development project may not be in an 
amount that exceeds 75 percent of such costs. 
‘‘(3) ON-SITE
RETENTION
GUIDANCE.—Not 
later than June 1, 2010, the Administrator shall 
issue guidance with respect to the implementation of 
practices that retain stormwater on-site through in-
filtration, evapotranspiration, or harvesting, to assist 
entities affected by the permit described under para-
graph (1) to meet the requirements of such permit. 
‘‘(4) FOREST COVER.—Not later than January 
1, 2012, the Administrator shall coordinate with the 
heads of other Federal departments and agencies to 
develop plans to maximize forest cover on land 
owned by the Federal Government in the Chesa-
peake Bay watershed through the preservation of ex-
isting forest cover and the development of reforest-
ation plans with respect to land that has been dis-
turbed or developed in the past. 
‘‘(5) UNIT
OF
LOCAL
GOVERNMENT
DE-
FINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘unit of local 
government’ means any county, city, or other gen-
eral purpose political subdivision, including regional 
authorities of a State with jurisdiction over land use. 
‘‘(6) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—In 
addition to amounts authorized to be appropriated 
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or otherwise made available to carry out this section, 
there is authorized to be appropriated to the Admin-
istrator $1,500,000,000 to carry out this subsection, 
to remain available until expended.’’. 
Æ 
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