Clean Water Act Amendments of 1985

Summary

Clean Water Act Amendments of 1985 - Title I: Regulatory Amendments - Amends the Clean Water Act to authorize appropriations through FY 1989. Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award an annual grant to support a National Clearinghouse on small flows and innovative or alternative technologies information. Extends for four years, through July 1, 1988, the outside compliance dates for direct dischargers to: (1) achieve best available technology (BAT) effluent limitations for toxic pollutants and nonconventional pollutants; (2) achieve best conventional technology (BCT) for specified conventional pollutants; and (3) meet effluent limitations through best practicable control (BPT) or according to permit requirements based on best judgment. Revises eligibility requirements for a municipal treatment facility to receive an ocean discharge waiver. Requires such works to be in compliance with applicable pretreatment requirements and, if serving a population of 5,000 or more, to be enforcing a toxic pollutant control program for industrial pollution comparable to Federal categorical pretreatment standards. Requires such a facility to be providing a minimum of primary treatment of its municipal effluent, including disinfection when appropriate, at the time of the waiver application. Requires the affected marine waters to exhibit the physical and tidal characteristics sufficient for effective flushing action. Requires the level of effluent concentration in saline estuarine waters to be nondeleterious to marine life and use. Permits a municipal facility, subject to specified conditions, to apply for an ocean waiver under a contract made prior to December 31, 1982, if it discharged its sewage into another municipal facility which itself has applied for an ocean waiver. Authorizes the Administrator, with the concurrence of the State, to modify effluent limitation guidelines or categorical pretreatment standards for a facility if the facility can demonstrate its fundamental difference with respect to certain factors and that the application of alternative requirements will not be significantly more adverse to the environment than if the original standards were applied. Sets forth procedures and fee requirements. Requires States to identify bodies of water within or adjacent to them which will not meet State water quality standards because of toxic pollutants after the implementation of BAT. Requires the Administrator within two years of this Act's enactment to develop guidelines for such identification and for measuring water quality criteria for toxic pollutants on other than pollutant-by-pollutant criteria, using biomonitoring assessment techniques. Directs the States to establish numerical criteria, based on EPA's national water quality criteria, for toxic pollutants which could otherwise interfere with designated water uses. Permits such criteria to include the use of biological monitoring or assessment methods. Directs a State, within two years of identifying post-BAT toxic polluted waters, to establish effluent limitations for point sources discharging into such navigable waters, incorporating such limitations into discharge permits and taking substantial nonpoint source pollution into account. Requires compliance within three years of the limitations' establishment and the consideration of public health as a factor when establishing such limitations. Permits the Administrator, with State concurrence, to modify effluent limitations: (1) if a non-toxic polluter demonstrates that complete compliance does not satisfy a reasonable cost-benefit analysis; or (2) for five years if a toxic polluter demonstrates that a modified maximum limitation within the polluter's economic means will result in reasonable progress to post-BAT water quality standards. Directs the Administrator, within one year of this Act's enactment and then biennially, to publish guidelines for effluent limitations for toxic pollutants for industrial categories currently without such guidelines. Revises national pollutant discharge elimitation systems (NPDES) permits to require a publicly-owned municipal treatment works to meet the requirements of its permits through its own efforts rather than through mandatory pretreatment of conventional pollutants by indirect dischargers. Increases the daily, judicially-imposed civil penalty for violations of the Clean Water Act. Authorizes the Administrator to assess additional civil penalties daily, up to a specified amount, subject to review procedures. Increases criminal penalties for knowing violations of the Clean Water Act to the felony level and establishes criminal penalties for introducing harmful substances into sewer systems or publicly-owned treatment works. Revises the NPDES to permit the Administrator to delegate a portion of such system to a State with an approved plan for assuming administration of the entire program within five years or for administering one or more discharge categories. Provides for the return of such system to the Federal Government at a State's or the Administrator's behest. Revises venue provisions to permit an applicant for judicial review of certain Administrator actions to bring suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal district in which such applicant has its principal place of business or where such applicant transacts the business which is directly affected by the action in question. Increases the appeal period. Provides a random selection procedure to determine the forum when reviews of a particular EPA action have been filed in more than one court. Empowers the court to award attorney's fees to a prevailing or substantially prevailing party. Requires States to develop Administrator-approved nonpoint source pollution management programs identifying: (1) the waters prevented from meeting applicable standards by such pollution; (2) the categories of such pollutants; (3) the best management practices to institute; (4) an implementation schedule; (5) any additional State authorities necessary for the program, including an implementation schedule for acquiring such authorities; and (6) the effect of existing Federal programs on such program. Provides for resubmission of rejected programs which are subsequently modified. Directs the Administrator to develop a program for any State which fails to do so and report on such actions to the Congress. Directs the Administrator to make grants to States of up to 75 percent of implementation costs if remaining funds are non-Federal. Sets forth a per State allotment schedule, reserving one-third of the available funds for particularly difficult problems, innovative technology, interstate pollution, ground water contamination assessment, and Indian tribes. Directs the Administrator to reallot unobligated funds. Sets forth conditions on fund usage. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1988. Requires each State to report to the Administrator annually on its progress. Directs the Administrator to transmit to the Office of Management and Budget and the appropriate Federal departments and agencies a list of those assistance programs and development projects identified by States for which individual assistance applications and projects will be reviewed. Requires each Federal department and agency to modify existing regulations to allow States to conduct such review and accommodate the concerns of the State regarding the consistency of such applications or projects with the State program. Directs the Administrator to collect and make available information pertaining to management practices and implementation methods. Directs the Administrator, within three years of this Act's enactment, to report to the Congress on the State management programs and the grants. Earmarks funds for such programs. Directs the Administrator to convene an estuarine management conference for up to five years whenever the environmental integrity of an estuary requires interstate or international control of sources of pollution. Requires such conference to evaluate trends and causes of environmental problems and to develop and monitor a comprehensive conservation and management plan. Authorizes the use of Federal funds for such conferences and for the implementation of the plan. Requires any State or agency receiving such funding to report biennially to the Administrator. Exempts from permit requirements and effluent limitations, certain stormwater runoff discharges from mining operations or oil or gas exploration, production, processing, or treatment operations. Requires exempted run-offs to be a product of precipitation flows or systems designed to collect or convey such water. Requires that such run-offs be uncontaminated (as determined by the Administrator). Sets forth anti-backsliding requirements relating to renewal or reissuance of NPDES permits. Revises the sewage sludge disposal timetable. Directs the Administrator to identify in two stages, 10 months apart, starting April 1, 1986, those toxic pollutants which may be present in sewage sludge in concentrations which may adversely affect public health or the environment. Directs the Administrator to propose regulations specifying acceptable management practices and establishing numerical limitations for each such pollutant. Requires promulgation of such regulations within one year. Authorizes the Administrator to promulgate a design, equipment, management practice, or operational standard for certain pollutants if a numerical limitation is not feasible and the same protection can be achieved. Requires NPDES permits to include requirements for the use and disposal of sludge, and provides for implementing such regulations. Authorizes the Administrator to issue a permit to implement such regulations to a facility not subject to NPDES. Directs the Administrator to finally resolve disputes between States as to whether a proposed or already permitted discharge or a discharge not subject to permit in one State would or does violate water quality standards or adversely affect public health in another State. States that nothing in the Clean Water Act preempts redress mechanisms available under State or Federal statutes. Applies State law in cases of interstate pollution. Permits the town of Hampton, New Hampshire, to continue using its ad valorem tax user charge system for collecting the costs of operation and maintenance of its sewage treatment works in satisfaction of specified requirements for grants for treatment works. Requires the Administrator to review such system for compliance with other requirements. Imposes a cap on raw sewage discharges from the drainage areas of the North River plant, Manhattan, New York, and the Red Hook Plant, Brooklyn, New York, into navigable waters (the Hudson-Raritan Estuary) if New York City fails to meet the deadlines for achieving advanced preliminary treatment contained in the consent decree of December 30, 1982 (August 1, 1986, for the North River plant; August 1, 1987, for the Red Hook plant). Permits the Administrator to raise such cap for seasonal variations, natural disasters, or other circumstances beyond the control of the city of New York. States that violations of this Act shall be considered violations of the Clean Water Act, as well as of the consent decree. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Administrator should not agree to any further modification of the advanced preliminary treatment schedule in the consent decree. Directs the Administrator to work with New York City, implement monitoring activities for both plants, and commence enforcement actions in the event of unexcused violations. Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection agency (EPA) to continue the Chesapeake Bay Program and establish an Office within EPA to: (1) collect and disseminate research and other information on the environmental quality of the Bay; (2) coordinate Federal research efforts; (3) conduct research on sediment deposition in the Bay; and (4) conduct research on how environmental changes effect the living resources of the Bay, with particular emphasis on the impact of pollutant loadings. Directs the Administrator to make a grant to a State affected by the interstate management plan developed under the Bay Program to implement management mechanisms in the plan if the State has approved and is committed to implementing all or substantially all aspects of the plan. Requires a State or combination of States, in order to qualify for such grants, to submit a plan for proposed abatement actions to reduce Bay pollution and meet applicable water quality standards and of estimated costs for the approval of the Administrator. Limits such grants to 55 percent of the plan implementation costs. Limits administrative costs. Requires States to submit progress reports biennially to the Administrator for transmittal to the Congress. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1988. Establishes the already existing Great Lakes National Program Office within EPA. Requires such Office to be located in a Great Lakes State. Requires such Office to carry out the responsibilities of the United States under the Great Lake Water Quality Agreement of 1978, monitor the water quality of the Great Lakes, and serve as a liaison with the International Joint Commission's Canadian members. Directs the Office to develop a five-year plan for reducing the amount of nutrients introduced into the Lakes and a five-year study and demonstration project program for the control and removal of toxic pollutants. Directs the Administrator to report annually to the Congress on Great Lakes' water quality. Requires interagency cooperation and reporting with such programs. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1990. Directs each State to report biennially to the Administrator on the water quality of the publicly-owned lakes. Directs the Administrator to conduct and report to the Congress on a comprehensive study of pollution in Lake Pend Oreille, Montana and Idaho. Title II: Construction Grant Amendments - Extends the authorization of appropriations for five years, through FY 1990, in decreasing amount for grants to States for the construction of publicly owned waste treatment plants. Allocates such funds among the States based upon need. Permits communities applying for construction grant assistance to enter into an agreement with the Administrator to erect treatment works under alternate design-build grant management procedures, subject to specified limitations. Continues through FY 1990 the requirement that between four and seven and one-half percent of allotted funds be reserved to increase the Federal share for innovative and alternative projects. Requires the reserve of one-and-one-half percent of specified funds for marine combined sewer overflow problems and estuaries. Directs the Administrator to assess the sewage treatment needs of Indian tribes, reporting to the Congress within one year. Authorizes the Administrator to reserve up to one-half of one percent of specified funds for Indian needs after FY 1986. Authorizes the Administrator to treat Indian tribes specially or as States as required to meet such tribes' sewage treatment needs. Adds a new title VI: Grants for Water Pollution Control Revolving Funds. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1989 through 1994 for capitalization grants to States which establish Water Pollution Control Revolving Funds which would gradually take over the Federal program. Requires a participating State to: (1) enter into agreements with the Administrator; (2) establish the required Fund; (3) deposit in its Fund from State monies an amount equal to 15 percent of the capitalization grant; (4) make loan commitments for publicly-owned waste treatment plants within one year which commit all of the Fund; (5) submit required annual and intended use reports; and (6) comply with generally accepted procedures and standards. Sets forth permitted uses of the Fund. Authorizes the Administrator to reallot a noncomplying State's capitalization grant. Sets forth required accounting procedures. Directs the Administrator to review annually each State plan and report for using the Fund. Authorizes a State to use Federal grant funds to set up a Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund upon request. Directs the Administrator to report to the Congress by February 10, 1990, on the operation of the State Funds.

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4 official files

• Conference report filed in House

  summary · EN · 15 October 1986

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• Passed House amended

  summary · EN · 23 July 1985

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• Passed Senate amended

  summary · EN · 13 June 1985

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• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 14 May 1985

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