Water Pollution Prevention and Control Act of 1991

Summary

Water Pollution Prevention and Control Act of 1991 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to revise the authorized activities of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency with respect to water pollution control and investigations. Establishes a National Water Quality Research Committee to advise the Administrator on research activities. Requires the Committee to report annually to the Congress on: (1) research conducted in the preceding year; (2) highest priority research needs for the following five-year period; (3) planned research activities; and (4) opportunities to coordinate Federal and State research. Directs the Administrator to conduct research and investigations of, and survey the results of other scientific studies on, the harmful effects of water pollutants on fish, shellfish, and wildlife. Authorizes appropriations for water pollution research and investigations. Earmarks specified amounts of such appropriations for a small flows clearinghouse and for the Committee. Requires the Administrator (currently, the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating) to conduct research concerning solid waste disposal equipment for vessels. Directs the Administrator to conduct research into fresh water aquatic ecosystems and on the nature of river systems (currently, authorizes the Administrator to make grants to colleges and universities and River Studies Centers, respectively, for conducting such research). Removes a limitation on the maximum amounts of grants for river system research. Revises provisions concerning grants for research and development to require the Administrator to establish a program to demonstrate practices for the prevention and control of industrial and municipal sources of water pollution. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants or enter into contracts with persons to develop or demonstrate such practices. Sets forth conditions for the receipt of such assistance. Requires the Administrator to publish annual solicitations for proposals to demonstrate practices which may be effective in controlling sources of water pollution. Sets forth application and approval procedures. Limits the amount of Federal funding for projects. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes appropriations for grants to States for water pollution control programs for FY 1991 and 1992. Sets forth minimum requirements for State water pollution control programs. Requires 75 percent of appropriations to be allotted to States on the basis of the water pollution problem in the respective States. Directs the Administrator to assure that the allocation of funds to a State in any fiscal year is not less than the amount allocated to such State in FY 1991. Makes 25 percent of appropriations available for grants to States for innovative programs for the control and prevention of water pollution which have application to other States. Requires States to contribute non-Federal funds to such grants. Authorizes States to reserve up to 20 percent of such grants to support: (1) costs of any interstate water pollution control agency; and (2) participation by substate regional agencies in water quality planning activities. Revises conditions for the receipt of grants and sets forth State reporting requirements. Revises provisions concerning training grants and contracts to require the Administrator to: (1) implement a national program to train persons in the operation of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment works and other facilities whose purpose is water quality control; (2) make grants to, or contracts with, institutions of higher education to support such programs; and (3) publish guidance on the minimum elements of such programs. Directs the Administrator to award training grants to at least ten institutions of higher education in each fiscal year. Provides for the triennial review of such programs. Directs the Administrator to implement a program to certify the proficiency of operators of publicly owned wastewater treatment works. Requires operators and other designated personnel to be certified as proficient by the Administrator. Directs the Administrator to publish: (1) guidelines on minimum standards for certification; and (2) a Treatment Works Operator's Manual. Provides for certification fees. Authorizes the delegation of the authority for a certification program to a State if the State is qualified to operate the program and will provide the Administrator with requested information. Permits the transfer of an individual's certification from one treatment works to another. Makes certifications valid for a five-year period. Permits recertification for an additional five years provided that the individual: (1) complies with in-service training and related education; and (2) has remained in the applicable position for four years of the five-year certification period. Prescribes civil penalties for violations of certification requirements. Requires institutions of higher education, in addition to other requirements for receiving scholarships for persons planning to enter occupations involving treatment works, to have participated in the treatment works training program and to assure representation of minorities and women in the scholarship program. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1991 and 1992 to carry out the operator training and scholarship programs. Reserves a specified amount of funds for the scholarship program. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants for training in technical matters related to pollution causes, prevention, and elimination. Requires (currently, authorizes) the Administrator to establish research fellowships and maintain a system for forecasting the supply of, and demand for, occupational categories needed for the prevention, reduction, and elimination of pollution. Revises provisions concerning effluent guidelines to require the Administrator to promulgate effluent guidelines applicable to point sources which discharge pollutants into navigable waters. Sets forth requirements for such regulations. Repeals a provision authorizing the modification of a timetable with respect to effluent limitations. Requires effluent guidelines to be reviewed and revised at least every seven years (currently, five years). Directs the Administrator to revise such guidelines on an earlier date if advances in pollution control technology or practices would achieve a significant reduction in the quantity of toxicity of pollutants discharged to navigable waters and such advances are technologically and economically achievable. Requires the Administrator to promulgate or revise standards of performance for new sources in a category whenever effluent guidelines for such category are promulgated or revised. Provides for the review and revision of such standards at least every seven years. Requires sources with pollutant discharge permits and sources introducing pollutants into publicly owned treatment works to pay fees to the Administrator to meet costs of developing effluent guidelines and new source performance standards. Bases the assessment of fees on the volume and toxicity of the discharge. Modifies or waives such fees for small businesses or for reasons of financial hardship. Modifies such fees for sources demonstrating new or innovative technology or allowing the Administrator such access as will facilitate the full development of the guideline or standard. Makes assessments and penalties available only for the development of effluent guidelines and new source performance and pretreatment standards. Makes applicants for permits to operate pursuant to an effluent guideline who have failed to pay applicable assessments liable for penalties. Revises provisions concerning the Effluent Standards and Water Quality Information Advisory Committee. Requires the Committee to: (1) advise the Administrator in the development of effluent standards, new source performance standards, categorical pretreatment standards, secondary treatment standards, and related information and guidelines; and (2) review effluent guideline plans. Directs the Administrator to: (1) publish biennial guidelines for States to follow in issuing contaminated finfish and shellfish consumption advisories to protect recreational and subsistence fishermen; and (2) provide technical assistance to States to support implementation of the guidelines and to educate the public on the risks of consumption of contaminated fish and shellfish. Requires the Administrator, in developing water quality criteria and information, to: (1) consider the factors necessary to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of water bodies; (2) consider the factors necessary to assure the protection of public water supplies, provide for the protection and propagation of a balanced, indigenous population of fish, shellfish, and wildlife, and provide for recreation in and on the water; and (3) identify numerical pollutant concentration limits for varying types of receiving waters sufficient to assure attainment of all designated uses. Authorizes the Administrator to establish biological monitoring and assessment methods for pollutants. Requires the Administrator to publish biennially a list of conventional, nonconventional, and toxic pollutants. Directs the Administrator to submit a plan for the development of water quality criteria and information to the Congress on a triennial basis. Requires the first plan to provide for: (1) publication of criteria and information for at least 20 pollutants for which criteria and information are not currently available in each fiscal year; (2) revision of at least 20 existing criteria documents to address the needs of lakes and marine waters; and (3) publication of at least 20 criteria documents for pollutants in aquatic sediments. Directs the Administrator to publish: (1) at least 60 criteria documents within four years of this Act's enactment date; and (2) a criteria document for whole effluent toxicity. Requires States to designate uses for all water bodies for which uses have not been designated. Includes within the water bodies for which uses shall be designated rivers and streams, lakes, estuarine water bodies, and waters of the contiguous zone. Applies use designations to the waters and aquatic sediments of water bodies. Requires water bodies not currently designated to support the goal of fishable, swimmable waters to be designated by a specified deadline. Authorizes the Administrator to extend a designated use for a water body for three years based on a showing by a State that attainment and maintenance of fishable, swimmable waters: (1) is not feasible because naturally occurring pollutant concentrations prevent attainment of the use or human caused sources of pollution prevent attainment and would cause more environmental harm to correct than to leave in place; or (2) would result in substantial and widespread social and economic impacts. Requires States to adopt water and sediment quality standards adequate to protect designated uses. Sets forth standards requirements. Authorizes States to adopt biological monitoring and assessment methods for a class of pollutants affecting a water body. Directs a State to: (1) adopt standards for pollutants for which water quality criteria and information are published; (2) notify States which border on the waters of such State and States with water bodies located upstream from the State of changes in standards; and (3) report revisions or adoptions of uses or standards to the Administrator. Sets forth approval and review procedures for designations and standards. Requires the Administrator to promulgate uses or standards for States that fail to comply. Directs the Administrator to designate uses of waters of the contiguous zone and the ocean and to adopt standards for such waters for each pollutant for which criteria and information have been published. Provides for the biennial review of a State's water quality planning process. Prohibits the Administrator from making grants for water pollution control programs to States without approved planning processes. Deletes provisions concerning thermal discharges and heat standards. Requires States to implement antidegradation policies. Directs the Administrator to implement such policies for States without approved policies. Sets forth policy requirements. Requires States to implement programs to protect outstanding national resource waters. Directs the Administrator to designate such waters for States that fail to do so. Requires State antidegradation policies to assure that waters of ecological significance meet water and sediment quality standards. Directs States to conduct antidegradation reviews for water bodies: (1) prior to issuing permits to sources authorizing new or increased pollutant discharges to such water bodies; and (2) whenever existing sources increase the mass or concentration of discharges to such water bodies by more than de minimis amounts to assure that the antidegradation policy is not violated. Permits water quality standards to be exceeded in mixing zones. Requires States to establish a schedule (not to exceed five years) for the development of total maximum daily loads for pollutants for which criteria and information are published in water bodies in which designated uses or standards are not attained. Directs the Administrator or an authorized State, in the case of water bodies for which individual control strategies are developed, to: (1) provide that permits issued to point sources discharging to such waters include specified authorities; (2) issue permits for industrial and municipal discharges of stormwater to such waters; (3) prohibit the specification of an area as a disposal site and restrict the use of such area; (4) prohibit the discharge of sewage from vessels; (5) give priority to the selection of such waters for specified management conferences; and (6) prepare management programs for watershed areas of waters for States without approved assessment and/or management programs for an affected water body. Requires States to conduct and report biennially to the Administrator on programs to monitor the quality of navigable waters. Establishes a Water Quality Monitoring Council to assure the coordination of Federal and State water quality monitoring programs. Requires the Administrator to: (1) issue annual guidance for the coordinated implementation of such programs; and (2) submit a strategy for such implementation to the Congress. Authorizes appropriations. Permits the Administrator to prohibit the discharge of specified pollutants from point sources to protect public health or the environment. Directs the Administrator to publish regulations prohibiting the discharge of, and to establish bioaccumulation factors for, the following pollutants: (1) Aldrin/Dieldrin; (2) DDT; (3) Endrin; (4) Toxaphene; (5) Benzidine; (6) polychlorinated biphenyls; (7) 2,3,7,8, TCDD; and (8) mercury. Requires the Administrator to: (1) publish procedures for determining the bioaccumulation factor of toxic pollutants; and (2) publish regulations prohibiting the discharge of highly toxic and bioaccumulative pollutants. Exempts publicly owned treatment works from discharge prohibitions if compliance is technologically infeasible. Permits persons to petition for the prohibition of a pollutant discharge. Prohibits the Administrator from registering a pesticide pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act until the registrant submits sufficient information to assess the toxicity of the pesticide. Provides for: (1) the addition to, or removal from, such list of pollutants; and (2) the review and revision of such list at least every five years. Requires the Administrator to remove ammonia and chlorine from the list of nonconventional pollutants and to add them to the list of toxic pollutants. Revises provisions concerning pretreatment standards to require the Administrator to promulgate pretreatment standards and local limits for the introduction of toxic and nonconventional pollutants into treatment works. Sets forth requirements for such standards. Directs the Administrator to promulgate pretreatment standards for each category of sources for which effluent guidelines but no pretreatment standards have been promulgated, unless such sources will not introduce pollutants into publicly owned treatment works. Authorizes the Administrator to promulgate pretreatment standards for sources regardless of whether effluent guidelines have been promulgated. Provides for the review and revision of pretreatment standards at least every seven years. Requires compliance with such standards within three years of the date on which the standards are promulgated. Directs control authorities to establish local limits for the pretreatment of all toxic and nonconventional pollutants introduced into a publicly owned treatment works by industrial users. Requires limits to be established for industrial users not subject to a national pretreatment standard. Requires compliance by control authorities within five years of this Act's enactment date. Prohibits the issuance of permits to publicly owned treatment works after such deadline unless such permits include requirements to enforce local limits. Makes it unlawful to introduce pollutants that are hazardous wastes into treatment works. Revises State permit requirements for discharges from publicly owned treatment works. Authorizes civil actions to be brought for past violations of effluent standards or limitations. Grants district courts discretion to order civil penalties to be used for projects to enhance public health or the environment by restoring or improving water quality or wildlife or habitat damaged as a result of the violation. Prescribes civil and criminal penalties for violations of pretreatment requirements. Requires public notice to be provided with respect to noncomplying major dischargers. Authorizes the Administrator to withhold up to 25 percent of funds for water pollution control programs from a State unless the State has adequate authority to abate violations of specified permits and pretreatment requirements applicable to industrial users of publicly owned treatment works. Requires treatment works serving populations greater than 50,000 persons to submit Toxic Reduction Action Programs to the Administrator. Sets forth program requirements. Requires treatment works to give priority to sources violating water quality standards in implementing influent interdiction programs. Sets forth approval procedures. Provides that such programs shall be valid for five years and may be reviewed, revised, and resubmitted after such period. Requires the Administrator to adjust the amount of permit fees for treatment works to reflect the degree of pollutant reduction accomplished. Directs the Administrator to publish guidelines specifying elements of nonpoint pollution management programs. Withholds nonpoint source management grants and Federal highway assistance (with specified exceptions) from States without approved nonpoint source management programs. Extends the authorization of appropriations for such grants and for grants for protecting groundwater quality through FY 1993. Requires priority consideration to be given to watersheds of impaired water bodies in soil conservation programs of the Department of Agriculture. Makes watersheds of such water bodies eligible for enrollment in a specified agricultural water quality protection program. Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to acquire easements for cropland located within watersheds of impaired water bodies. Requires the Secretary to designate such watersheds as conservation priority areas. Directs the Administrator to issue regulations concerning the control of nonpoint sources of pollution on all lands managed or owned by the Federal Government. Prohibits the manufacturing and distribution for sale within the United States of any commercial fertilizer without taking precautions for protection of water quality. Sets forth requirements with respect to such fertilizers. Requires the Administrator to prepare an annual list and description of significant water resource areas. Authorizes persons to petition for the inclusion of a water body on such list. Revises provisions concerning rural nonpoint source pollution management. Requires the Administrator to establish management conferences to assess environmental quality in major river systems and develop management plans for such systems. Provides that management conferences shall be convened for periods of up to five years. Directs the Administrator to select river systems for inclusion in the program. Sets forth conditions for priority consideration for the program. Authorizes State Governors to nominate any system within a State as a river system of national significance and request a management conference for such system. Requires the Administrator to give priority consideration for inclusion in the system to the Hudson River, the Susquehanna River, the Delaware River, the Rio Grande, and the Columbia River. Sets forth minimum requirements of conservation and management plans required under such conferences. Authorizes the Administrator to implement: (1) a program of monitoring to determine the physical, biological, and chemical conditions of a river system; (2) a program of ecosystem assessment; and (3) a research program to identify the movement of pollutants through the river system and the impact of pollutants on water quality, the ecosystem, and uses of the waters. Permits the Administrator to make grants to support management conferences. Limits and places conditions on such grants. Prohibits the issuance of a permit unless the applicant demonstrates a need to discharge based on the maximum use of measures to eliminate the discharge or reduce the volume and toxicity of pollutants within the economic capability of the owner or operator. Provides that State permit programs shall insure that permits with remaining terms of three or more years are revised to incorporate new or revised effluent limitations or other standards promulgated after the issuance of such permits. Prohibits the issuance of new permits for new discharges into navigable waters to persons who own, lease, or operate two or more facilities that are not in compliance with permits. Requires new facilities to obtain discharge permits prior to the construction of such facilities. Authorizes the Administrator to deny permits for discharges into the territorial sea, the waters of the contiguous zone, the oceans, or waters not attaining water quality standards if such discharges can be expected to adversely affect the protection and propagation of a balanced, indigenous population of shellfish, fish, and wildlife and recreational activity in and on the water. Deems existing exemptions to limitations concerning biological discharge criteria to be invalid. Adds waters not attaining water quality standards to the list of waters for which the Administrator is required to promulgate guidelines to determine degradation and biological discharge criteria. Requires State permit programs to provide for the termination or modification of a permit if a State other than that in which the source is located provides notice that the permitted discharge is causing a substantial violation of a water quality requirement or adversely affecting public health. Directs the Administrator to take specified actions if a State does not accept the recommendations of the State whose waters are affected by the discharge. Requires States in which there are discharges of overflows from combined storm water and sanitary sewers into navigable waters to submit biennially to the Administrator an inventory of such discharges which shall: (1) identify the location of each discharge and the affected waterbody; (2) identify the entity responsible for the discharge; (3) identify the permit for the discharge; (4) identify the estimated volume and pollutant loading of the discharge over a one-year period; (5) assess the proportion of the volume of the combined discharge to the volume capacity of the appropriate treatment works over a specified time period; and (6) identify the nature and status of any existing programs to eliminate discharges. Directs such entities to submit to the Administrator a program and schedule for the elimination of such discharges. Outlines program requirements and procedures for approval and modification. Makes entities which fail to implement such programs subject to penalties. Directs the Administrator or an authorized State to modify or issue permits for discharges of combined sewers. Requires the Administrator to publish guidance describing best management practices and other measures for the elimination of combined storm water and sanitary sewer overflows. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants for the development of surveys of combined sewer overflows and for the development and implementation of overflow elimination plans. Sets forth grant approval and allocation procedures. Limits the Federal share of the cost of such programs. Provides for the establishment of a water pollution control revolving fund for States which implement a combined storm water and sanitary sewer elimination program. Requires the Administrator to publish information establishing the degree of percentage removal attainable through the application of secondary treatment where a treatment works receives flows from combined sanitary and storm water sewers. Requires States administering discharge permit programs to require owners or operators of point sources subject to permit requirements to pay annual fees to cover at least 60 percent of the costs of administering the point source elements of water quality programs. Sets forth provisions concerning the amount of fees. Requires the Administrator to collect fees if a State is not enforcing a fee program. Makes sources that fail to pay fees liable for payment of fees and penalties. Withholds 50 percent of pollution control assistance from a State that fails to comply with permit fee requirements. Prohibits the firing of, or discrimination against, any employee who refuses to perform duties that would constitute a violation of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act or would result in serious injury to the public. Requires the Administrator to assess the cost of construction of public facilities needed to accomplish the water quality goals of this Act. Increases the amount of sums to be reserved for waste treatment management plans, sewage treatment works, and nonpoint source programs for Indian tribes. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants for such assistance in amounts of up to 100 percent of the project cost. Requires the Administrator to report to the Congress biennially on the need for sewage treatment works to serve Indian tribes. Directs the Administrator to make grants to support the administration of water quality programs by Indian tribes treated as States. Permits the Administrator to make grants to Indian tribes to support development of authorities necessary for such treatment. Sets forth provisions concerning the allocations of such grants and limitations on the Federal share of the costs of such programs. Makes State water pollution control revolving loan funds available to Indian tribes for construction of publicly owned treatment works. Directs the Administrator to issue permits for discharges to navigable waters on Federal Indian reservations unless the Indian tribe has been delegated authority to issue permits. Requires persons with discharge permits who are required to file annual toxic chemical release forms under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 to conduct environmental audits to establish and improve compliance with permit requirements. Provides that environmental audits shall be conducted by persons certified under this Act. Directs the Administrator to establish requirements concerning such audits and to notify facilities required to prepare audits. Requires the Administrator, in notifying such facilities, to give priority to facilities at which: (1) there is a history of noncompliance with permits; (2) discharges contribute to violations of water quality standards; (3) discharges are of significant volume or toxicity; and (4) there are discharges to several environmental media. Directs the Administrator to publish guidance concerning methods for the design and implementation of environmental monitoring and audits. Prescribes civil or criminal penalties for audit violations. Sets forth provisions concerning the confidentiality of information obtained from facilities subject to audit requirements. Prescribes civil penalties for the disclosure of protected information. Lists information not entitled to protection. Requires the Administrator to develop: (1) programs for the training and certification of individuals conducting audits; and (2) a general manual of methods for environmental monitoring, compliance assessment, and environmental auditing. Limits certifications to a period of ten years. Permits the Administrator to collect fees for training and certification programs. Requires the Administrator to provide for oversight and evaluation of audits and for random tests of the accuracy of data and analyses conducted by organizations certified to conduct audits. Provides for revocations of certifications, or permanent barring, of organizations with repeated audit inaccuracies. Requires the modification of permits based on measures recommended in audits. Directs the Administrator to: (1) negotiate with representatives of the Government of Mexico to establish a program to prevent pollution and to monitor and improve water quality in the U.S.-Mexican border region; (2) determine which water bodies in the region are not in compliance with designated uses; (3) determine the sources of pollutants causing impairment of such water bodies and the amounts of pollutants discharged; and (4) assess the need for sewage treatment works to serve such region and the degree to which such needs will be met through certain funds allotted to States. Extends the general authorization of appropriations for the Federal Water Pollution Control Act through FY 1998. Establishes a Clean Water Fund to support the implementation of specified water pollution control programs. Sets forth Fund allotment requirements. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes appropriations through FY 1992 (currently, FY 1996 and FY 1995, respectively) for implementation of the Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan and the Lake Champlain Management Conference. Revises a condition on the use of a State water pollution control revolving fund to make loans to provide that the costs of administering the fund shall not exceed four percent of all capitalization grants (currently, all grant awards to the fund). Permits capitalization grants to American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Trust Territory of Palau (or its successor entity), the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia to be used for grants for the construction of treatment works. Continues the allotment of funds under the current formula through FY 1996. Requires the Administrator to: (1) reserve a specified percentage of funds for incentive capitalization grants; and (2) make such grants to any State which, after FY 1992, deposits moneys in an amount equal to that deposited in FY 1991 in a water pollution control revolving fund. Directs States to deposit awards in such funds. Adds to the list of conditions under which water pollution control revolving funds may make loans that loans for publicly owned treatment works utilizing innovative treatment processes may be made at or below market interest rates at terms not to exceed 40 years. Prohibits more than five percent of the capitalized value of a fund from being used to provide such assistance. Sets forth provisions concerning the use of unobligated funds. Revises repayment requirements for loans made from State revolving funds to require annual principal and interest payments to commence within three (currently, one) years after completion of a project. Permits such loans to be made to reduce the principal of debt obligations by at least 85 percent where such obligations were incurred after May 15, 1991, and where the State has determined that the municipality, intermunicipality, or interstate agency would not be able to afford to undertake a project with assistance. Requires value engineering reviews to be conducted for any treatment works construction projected in excess of $20,000,000 (currently, $10,000,000).

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• Introduced in Senate (text)

  Introduced in Senate · EN

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• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 15 May 1991

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