Great Lakes Water Protection Act

Bill: 113-s-571
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Kirk, Mark Steven [R-IL]
Introduced: 2013-03-14
Policy area: Environmental Protection
Subjects: Aquatic ecology

Government information and archives

Government trust funds

Great Lakes

Lakes and rivers

Marine pollution

Pollution liability

Solid waste and recycling

Water quality

Wetlands

Wildlife conservation and habitat protection
Latest action: action_date: 2014-07-16
text: Committee on Environment and Public Works Senate Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 113-772.

Summaries:
action_date: 2013-03-14
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p>Great Lakes Water Protection Act - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to prohibit a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) from performing a discharge (defined as an intentional diversion of waste streams to bypass any portion of a treatment facility which results in a discharge of untreated or partially treated sewage into the Great Lakes) unless: (1) the bypass is unavoidable to prevent loss of life, personal injury, or severe property damage, there is no feasible alternative, and the treatment works provides notice; or (2) the bypass does not cause effluent limitations to be exceeded and is for essential maintenance to ensure efficient operation of the treatment facility. </p> <p>Requires a POTW to provide prior notice for any anticipated discharge, or notice as soon as practicable for any unanticipated discharge (but no later than two hours after a discharge begins for a POTW with an automated detection system or 12 hours after a discharge begins for a POTW without such system), to: (1) the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (or a state if the state has an approved permit program), (2) each local health department (or a state health department if a local department does not exist), (3) the municipality in which a discharge occurred, (4) each municipality with jurisdiction over waters that may be affected, (5) a daily newspaper of general circulation in each county in which such a municipality is located, and (6) the public.</p> <p>Requires a POTW, within five days after such initial notice, to provide follow-up notice regarding the cause of, reason for, dates and times of, anticipated duration of, volume of, public access areas affected by, and steps taken or planned to reduce, eliminate, and prevent recurrence of, the discharge. Requires the Administrator (or a state with an approved permit program) to annually publish and make available to the public a list of the POTWs from which a follow-up notice was received. </p> <p> Includes among prohibited bypasses those resulting in discharges from a POTW that consist of effluent routed around treatment units and blended with effluent from treatment units prior to discharge.</p> <p>Directs the Administrator to establish procedures to ensure that permits issued to POTWs under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System include requirements to comply with this Act.</p> <p>Establishes a maximum civil penalty of $100,000 per day for violations of this Act occurring on or after January 1, 2033. </p> <p>Establishes the Great Lakes Cleanup Fund into which penalties for violations of this Act shall be deposited and from which amounts shall be provided for improving wastewater discharges.</p>

tv_txt: II 113th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 571 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 14, 2013 Mr. Kirk (for himself and Mr. Durbin ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works 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. Short title This Act may be cited as the Great Lakes Water Protection Act . 2. Prohibition on sewage dumping into the Great Lakes Section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act ( 33 U.S.C. 1342 ) is amended by adding at the end the following: (s) Prohibition on sewage dumping into the Great Lakes (1) Definitions In this subsection: (A) Bypass The term bypass means an intentional diversion of waste streams to bypass any portion of a treatment facility which results in a discharge into the Great Lakes. (B) Discharge (i) In general The term discharge means a direct or indirect discharge of untreated sewage or partially treated sewage from a treatment works into the Great Lakes. (ii) Inclusions The term discharge includes a bypass and a combined sewer overflow. (C) Great lakes The term Great Lakes has the meaning given the term in section 118(a)(3). (D) Partially treated sewage The term partially treated sewage means any sewage, sewage and storm water, or sewage and wastewater, from domestic or industrial sources that— (i) is not treated to national secondary treatment standards for wastewater; or (ii) is treated to a level less than the level required by the applicable national pollutant discharge elimination system permit. (E) Treatment facility The term treatment facility includes all wastewater treatment units used by a publicly owned treatment works to meet secondary treatment standards or higher, as required to attain water quality standards, under any operating conditions. (F) Treatment works The term treatment works has the meaning given the term in section 212. (2) Prohibition A publicly owned treatment works is prohibited from performing a bypass unless— (A) (i) the bypass is unavoidable to prevent loss of life, personal injury, or severe property damage; (ii) there is not a feasible alternative to the bypass, such as the use of auxiliary treatment facilities, retention of untreated wastes, or maintenance during normal periods of equipment downtime; and (iii) the treatment works provides notice of the bypass in accordance with this subsection; or (B) the bypass does not cause effluent limitations to be exceeded, and the bypass is for essential maintenance to ensure efficient operation of the treatment facility. (3) Limitation The requirement of paragraph (2)(A)(ii) is not satisfied if— (A) adequate back-up equipment should have been installed in the exercise of reasonable engineering judgment to prevent the bypass; and (B) the bypass occurred during normal periods of equipment downtime or preventive maintenance. (4) Immediate notice requirements (A) In general A publicly owned treatment works shall provide to the entities described in subparagraph (B)— (i) for any anticipated discharge, prior notice of that discharge; and (ii) for any unanticipated discharge, as soon as practicable, but not later than— (I) for a treatment works with an automated detection system, 2 hours after the discharge begins; and (II) for a treatment works without an automated detection system, 12 hours after the discharge begins. (B) Notice The entities referred to in subparagraph (A) are— (i) the Administrator or, in the case of a State that has a permit program approved under this section, the State; (ii) each local health department or, if a local health department does not exist, the State health department; (iii) the municipality in which the discharge occurred and each municipality with jurisdiction over waters that may be affected by the discharge; (iv) a daily newspaper of general circulation in each county in which a municipality described in clause (iii) is located; and (v) the general public through a prominent announcement on a publicly accessible Internet site of the treatment works. (C) Contents The notice under subparagraph (A) shall include a description of— (i) the volume and state of treatment of the discharge; (ii) the date and time of the discharge; (iii) the expected duration of the discharge; (iv) the steps being taken to contain the discharge, except for a discharge that is a wet weather combined sewer overflow discharge; (v) the location of the discharge, with the maximum level of specificity practicable; and (vi) the cause for the discharge. (5) Follow-up notice requirements Each publicly owned treatment works that provides notice under paragraph (4)(B) shall provide to the Administrator (or to the State in the case of a State that has a permit program approved under this section), not later than 5 days after the date on which the publicly owned treatment works provides initial notice, a follow-up notice containing— (A) a more full description of the cause of the discharge; (B) the reason for the discharge; (C) the period of discharge, including the exact dates and times; (D) if the discharge has not been corrected, the anticipated time the discharge is expected to continue; (E) the volume of the discharge resulting from the bypass; (F) a description of any public access areas that has or may be impacted by the bypass; and (G) steps taken or planned to reduce, eliminate, and prevent reoccurrence of the discharge. (6) Public availability of notices (A) In general Not later than 48 hours after providing or receiving a follow-up notice under paragraph (5), as applicable, a publicly owned treatment works and the Administrator (or the State, in the case of a State that has a permit program approved under this section) shall each post the follow-up notice on a publicly accessible, searchable database on the Internet. (B) Annual publication The Administrator (or the State, in the case of a State that has a permit program approved under this section) shall annually publish and make available to the public a list of each of the treatment works from which the Administrator or the State, as applicable, received a follow-up notice under paragraph (5). (7) Sewage blending Bypasses prohibited by this section include bypasses resulting in discharges from a publicly owned treatment works that consist of effluent routed around treatment units and thereafter blended together with effluent from treatment units prior to discharge. (8) Implementation Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Administrator shall establish procedures to ensure that permits issued under this section (or under a State permit program approved under this section) to a publicly owned treatment works include requirements to implement this subsection. (9) Increase in maximum civil penalty for violations occurring after January 1, 2033 Notwithstanding section 309, in the case of a violation of this subsection occurring on or after January 1, 2033, or any violation of a permit limitation or condition implementing this subsection occurring after that date, the maximum civil penalty that shall be assessed for the violation shall be $100,000 per day for each day the violation occurs. (10) Applicability This subsection shall apply to a bypass occurring after the last day of the 1-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this subsection. . 3. Establishment of Great Lakes Cleanup Fund (a) In general Title V of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act ( 33 U.S.C. 1361 et seq. ) is amended— (1) by redesignating section 519 (33 U.S.C. 1251 note) as section 520; and (2) by inserting after section 518 (33 U.S.C. 1377) the following: 519. Establishment of Great Lakes Cleanup Fund (a) Definitions In this section: (1) Fund The term Fund means the Great Lakes Cleanup Fund established by subsection (b). (2) Great Lakes; Great Lakes States The terms Great Lakes and Great Lakes States have the meanings given the terms in section 118(a)(3). (b) Establishment of fund There is established in the Treasury of the United States a trust fund to be known as the Great Lakes Cleanup Fund (referred to in this section as the Fund ). (c) Transfers to fund Effective January 1, 2033, there are authorized to be appropriated to the Fund amounts equivalent to the penalties collected for violations of section 402(s). (d) Administration of fund The Administrator shall administer the Fund. (e) Use of funds The Administrator shall— (1) make the amounts in the Fund available to the Great Lakes States for use in carrying out programs and activities for improving wastewater discharges into the Great Lakes, including habitat protection and wetland restoration; and (2) allocate those amounts among the Great Lakes States based on the proportion that— (A) the amount attributable to a Great Lakes State for penalties collected for violations of section 402(s); bears to (B) the total amount of those penalties attributable to all Great Lakes States. (f) Priority In selecting programs and activities to be funded using amounts made available under this section, a Great Lakes State shall give priority consideration to programs and activities that address violations of section 402(s) resulting in the collection of penalties. . (b) Conforming amendment to State revolving fund program Section 607 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act ( 33 U.S.C. 1387 ) is amended— (1) by striking There is and inserting (a) In general.— There is ; and (2) by adding at the end the following: (b) Treatment of Great Lakes Cleanup Fund For purposes of this title, amounts made available from the Great Lakes Cleanup Fund under section 519 shall be treated as funds authorized to be appropriated to carry out this title and as funds made available under this title, except that the funds shall be made available to the Great Lakes States in accordance with section 519. .