I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1705 
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to assist municipalities 
and regional sewer authorities that would experience a significant hard-
ship raising the revenue necessary to finance projects and activities 
for the construction of wastewater treatment works, and for other pur-
poses. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 26, 2015 
Mr. LATTA (for himself and Mr. WALZ) 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 assist 
municipalities and regional sewer authorities that would 
experience a significant hardship raising the revenue nec-
essary to finance projects and activities for the construc-
tion of wastewater treatment works, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Clean Water Affordability Act of 2015’’. 
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(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
TITLE I—CLEAN WATER AFFORDABILITY 
Sec. 101. Integrated planning process. 
Sec. 102. Updating of guidance. 
Sec. 103. Capitalization grant agreements. 
TITLE II—WET WEATHER MANAGEMENT 
Sec. 201. Technology-based controls for peak wet weather management. 
Sec. 202. Wet weather water quality-based standards. 
Sec. 203. Peak wet weather waste water management techniques. 
TITLE I—CLEAN WATER 
AFFORDABILITY 
SEC. 101. INTEGRATED PLANNING PROCESS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 402(a) of the Federal 
Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1342(a)) is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(6) INTEGRATED PERMITS.— 
‘‘(A) DEFINITION
OF
PUBLICLY
OWNED 
PERMITTEE.—In this paragraph, the term ‘pub-
licly owned permittee’ means either— 
‘‘(i) a treatment works (as defined in 
section 212) that is publicly owned; or 
‘‘(ii) a municipal separate storm sewer 
system referred to in this section. 
‘‘(B) PLANNING APPROACH.—The Admin-
istrator shall establish a comprehensive and in-
tegrated planning approach to the obligations 
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under this section of a publicly owned per-
mittee— 
‘‘(i) under which permit obligations 
may be implemented according to a sched-
ule that— 
‘‘(I) accounts for the financial ca-
pability of the publicly owned per-
mittee; 
‘‘(II) prioritizes permit obliga-
tions according to the most cost-effec-
tive and environmentally beneficial 
outcomes; 
‘‘(III) accounts for the pre-
existing maintenance, operational, and 
regulatory obligations of the publicly 
owned permittee under this section; 
and 
‘‘(IV) enables the publicly owned 
permittee to implement innovative ap-
proaches to meet those obligations; 
and 
‘‘(ii) that accounts for changed cir-
cumstances in the obligations of the pub-
licly owned permittee, such as— 
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‘‘(I) new innovative treatment 
approaches; 
‘‘(II) new regulatory require-
ments; and 
‘‘(III) changes in financial capa-
bility.’’. 
(b) DURATION OF PERMITS.—Section 402(b)(1)(B) 
of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1342(b)(1)(B)) is amended by inserting before the semi-
colon at the end the following: ‘‘, except that a permit with 
a term of more than 5 years but not more than 25 years 
may be approved if the permittee has an approved inte-
grated plan established under subsection (a)(6)’’. 
SEC. 102. UPDATING OF GUIDANCE. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi-
nitions apply: 
(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency. 
(2) AFFORDABILITY.—The term ‘‘affordability’’ 
means, with respect to payment of a utility bill, a 
measure of whether an individual customer or house-
hold can pay the bill without undue hardship or un-
reasonable sacrifice in the essential lifestyle or 
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spending patterns of the individual or household, as 
determined by the Administrator. 
(3) FINANCIAL CAPABILITY.—The term ‘‘finan-
cial capability’’ means the financial capability of a 
community to make investments necessary to make 
water quality-related improvements, taking into con-
sideration the criteria described in subsection 
(b)(2)(A). 
(4) GUIDANCE.—The term ‘‘guidance’’ means 
the guidance published by the Administrator entitled 
‘‘Combined Sewer Overflows—Guidance for Finan-
cial Capability Assessment and Schedule Develop-
ment’’ and dated February 1997, as applicable to 
combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer over-
flows. 
(b) UPDATING.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 
shall update the guidance to ensure that the evalua-
tions by the Administrator of financial capability as-
sessment and schedule development meet the criteria 
described in paragraph (2). 
(2) CRITERIA.—The criteria described in this 
paragraph are that, under the updated guidance— 
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(A) in assessing the financial capability of 
a community— 
(i) greater emphasis should be placed 
on local economic conditions; 
(ii) for regional systems, consideration 
should be given to the economic conditions 
of political jurisdictions and significant de-
mographic groups within each region; 
(iii) prescriptive formulas for use in 
calculating financial capability and thresh-
olds for expenditure should not be consid-
ered to be the only indicator of the finan-
cial capability of a community; 
(iv) 
site-specific 
local 
conditions 
should be taken into consideration in ana-
lyzing financial capability; 
(v) a single measure of financial capa-
bility or affordability (such as median 
household income) should be viewed in the 
context of other economic measures, rather 
than as a threshold to be achieved; and 
(vi)(I) consideration should be given 
to the economic outlook of a community, 
including the potential impact of program 
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requirements over time, in the development 
of implementation schedules; and 
(II) the assessment should take into 
consideration other essential community 
investments relating to water quality im-
provements; 
(B) with respect to the timing of imple-
mentation of water quality-related improve-
ments— 
(i) environmental improvement imple-
mentation schedules should be structured 
to mitigate the potential adverse impact on 
distressed populations resulting from the 
costs of the improvements; 
(ii) implementation schedules should 
reflect local community financial conditions 
and economic impacts; 
(iii) implementation schedules should 
allow permittees up to 30 years to imple-
ment water quality-related improvements 
in appropriate cases in which the cost of 
implementing the improvements places a 
high financial burden on the permittee; 
and 
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(iv) existing implementation schedules 
should be modified in appropriate cases 
taking into consideration the criteria set 
forth in this subparagraph; 
(C) with respect to implementation— 
(i) a determination of local financial 
capability may be achieved through an 
evaluation of an array of factors the rel-
ative importance of which may vary across 
regions and localities; and 
(ii) 
an 
appropriate 
methodology 
should give consideration to such various 
factors as are appropriate to recognize the 
prevailing and projected economic concerns 
in a community; and 
(D) the residential indicator should be re-
vised to include— 
(i) a consideration of costs imposed 
upon ratepayers for essential utilities; 
(ii) increased consideration and quan-
tification of local community-imposed costs 
in regional systems; 
(iii) a mechanism to assess impacts on 
communities with disparate economic con-
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ditions throughout the entire service area 
of a utility; 
(iv) a consideration of the industrial 
and population trends of a community; 
(v) recognition that— 
(I) the median household income 
of a service area reflects a numerical 
median rather than the distribution of 
incomes within the service area; and 
(II) more representative methods 
of determining affordability, such as 
shelter costs, essential utility pay-
ments, State affordability criteria, and 
State and local tax efforts, should be 
considered; 
(vi) a consideration of low-income 
ratepayer percentages; and 
(vii) impacts relating to program de-
livery, such as water quality infrastructure 
market saturation and program manage-
ment. 
(3) IMPLEMENTATION.—The updated guidance 
should indicate that, in a case in which a previously 
approved long-term control plan or associated en-
forceable agreement does not prohibit modification 
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of the plan or terms of the agreement (including fi-
nancial capability considerations), and all parties are 
in agreement that a change is needed or that the 
plan or agreement does not prohibit reopening to ad-
dress changes in the economic or financial status of 
the community since the effective date of the plan or 
agreement, reconsideration and modification of fi-
nancial capability determinations and implementa-
tion schedules based on the criteria described in 
paragraph (2) is appropriate. 
(4) APPLICABILITY.—The Administrator shall 
apply the updated guidance, including the criteria 
described in paragraph (2), to each determination 
and analysis of affordability, financial capability, or 
widespread and substantial economic impact related 
to implementation of a program under the Federal 
Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et 
seq.). 
(c) PUBLICATION AND SUBMISSION.—Upon comple-
tion of the updating of guidance under subsection (b), the 
Administrator shall publish in the Federal Register and 
submit to the Committee on Environment and Public 
Works of the Senate and the Committee on Transpor-
tation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives 
the updated guidance. 
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SEC. 103. CAPITALIZATION GRANT AGREEMENTS. 
Section 602(b) of the Federal Water Pollution Con-
trol Act (33 U.S.C. 1382(b)) is amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 
(9); 
(2) by striking the period at the end of para-
graph (10) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(11) the State will use at least 15 percent of 
the amount of each capitalization grant received by 
the State under this title after September 30, 2016, 
to provide assistance to municipalities of fewer than 
10,000 individuals that meet the affordability cri-
teria established by the State under section 
603(i)(2) for activities included on the State’s pri-
ority list established under section 603(g), to the ex-
tent that there are sufficient applications for such 
assistance.’’. 
TITLE II—WET WEATHER 
MANAGEMENT 
SEC. 201. TECHNOLOGY-BASED CONTROLS FOR PEAK WET 
WEATHER MANAGEMENT. 
(a) APPLICABILITY OF EFFLUENT LIMITATIONS.— 
Section 301(b)(1)(B) of the Federal Water Pollution Con-
trol Act (33 U.S.C. 1311(b)(1)(B)) is amended by striking 
the semicolon and inserting ‘‘, which effluent limitations 
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shall apply at the final point of discharge from the treat-
ment facility and not to flows within the treatment facil-
ity;’’. 
(b) MODIFICATION
OF
EFFLUENT
LIMITATIONS 
DURING PEAK WET WEATHER.—Section 301 of such Act 
(33 U.S.C. 1311) is amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
‘‘(q) MODIFICATION
OF EFFLUENT LIMITATIONS 
DURING PEAK WET WEATHER.—The Administrator, with 
concurrence of the State, may issue permits pursuant to 
section 402 that modify the requirements of subsection 
(b)(1)(B) with respect to the discharge of any pollutant 
from a collection system servicing a publicly owned treat-
ment works during periods of peak wet weather, if the ap-
plicant demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Adminis-
trator that the applicant has a peak wet weather manage-
ment plan approved by the Administrator or State that— 
‘‘(1) defines the peak wet weather event during 
which the plan will apply; and 
‘‘(2) describes the management practices to be 
used by the applicant during peak wet weather 
events pursuant to guidelines established by the Ad-
ministrator under section 304(d)(2).’’. 
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SEC. 202. WET WEATHER WATER QUALITY-BASED STAND-
ARDS. 
Section 303(c)(2) of the Federal Water Pollution 
Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1313(c)(2)) is amended by adding 
at the end the following: 
‘‘(C)(i) States may adopt peak wet weather-re-
lated water quality standards for receiving waters 
during periods of peak wet weather events (as deter-
mined pursuant to section 304(d)(2)). 
‘‘(ii) The Administrator, after consultation with 
States and not later than 12 months after the date 
of enactment of this subparagraph, and from time to 
time thereafter, shall develop and publish guidance 
to States on developing and implementing peak wet 
weather-related water quality standards to accommo-
date peak wet weather discharges.’’. 
SEC. 203. PEAK WET WEATHER WASTE WATER MANAGE-
MENT TECHNIQUES. 
Section 304(d) of the Federal Water Pollution Con-
trol Act (33 U.S.C. 1314(d)) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through 
(4) as paragraphs (3) through (5), respectively; and 
(2) by inserting after paragraph (1) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(2) PEAK
WET
WEATHER
FLOW
PRACTICES 
AND TECHNIQUES.— 
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‘‘(A) INFORMATION
AND
GUIDELINES.— 
The Administrator, after consultation with ap-
propriate Federal and State agencies and other 
interested parties, shall publish not later than 
12 months after the date of enactment of the 
Clean Water Affordability Act of 2015, and 
from time to time thereafter, information and 
guidelines for peak wet weather waste water 
management practices available for use during 
periods of peak wet weather events by a collec-
tion system servicing a publicly owned treat-
ment works to— 
‘‘(i) prevent damage to the treatment 
facility; 
‘‘(ii) maximize the delivery of flow to 
the treatment facility; and 
‘‘(iii) provide for appropriate cost-ef-
fective controls during peak wet weather 
events. 
‘‘(B) CONTENTS
OF
GUIDELINES.—The 
guidelines shall include options for the types of 
technologies and management approaches avail-
able to manage peak wet weather-related waste-
water flows, including— 
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‘‘(i) technologies and management ap-
proaches relating to facility and collection 
system storage methods (including in-sys-
tem treatment methods throughout the col-
lection system); 
‘‘(ii) facility and collection systems op-
erations and maintenance systems; 
‘‘(iii) monitoring and reporting sys-
tems; and 
‘‘(iv) alternative treatment methods 
and technologies that can achieve applica-
ble water quality.’’. 
Æ 
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