Confidence in Clean Water Permits Act
The Confidence in Clean Water Permits Act would revise the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act) to change how compliance with permits is defined and how water quality-based limits are written in permits. The bill broadens what counts as “compliance with permits” by including not only pollutants that have explicit permit limits, but also pollutants that are identified as controlled or monitored or that are present in permitted discharges or in the facility’s operations during the permit application process or in related permit documents. It also adds a clear requirement that when water quality-based effluent limits are needed, they must be expressed in a permit as either a numeric limit or a narrative description of required actions. In addition, the bill includes some technical corrections to cross-references within the statute. In short, the bill aims to tighten and clarify how permit compliance is judged and how certain water-quality limits are presented, potentially broadening the scope of what facilities must comply with under their discharge permits and improving clarity around how certain limits are enforceable.
Key Points
- 1Expanded compliance scope: Compliance with a permit would cover not only pollutants with explicit effluent limits, but also any pollutant for which an effluent limit is not included if it is specifically identified as controlled or monitored through permit documents (the permit, fact sheet, or administrative record) and related to the permit’s discharge or operations.
- 2Permit-document and application references: Pollutants could be considered within scope if they are (i) identified as controlled or monitored in the permit documents, (ii) identified during the permit application as present in discharges, or (iii) present within the waste streams or operations identified in the permit application.
- 3Technical corrections: The bill makes a series of editorial and cross-reference fixes to ensure terminology and references (such as “this section,” capitalization of “Federal,” and related cross-references) are consistent across the statute.
- 4Clear form for water quality-based limits: If a water quality-based effluent limit is necessary, the permit may include it only in a form that either (i) specifies the pollutant and includes a numeric limit or (ii) provides a narrative description of required actions to achieve compliance.
- 5WQBELs in addition to technology-based limits: The bill clarifies that water quality-based limits can be included in a permit in addition to any appropriate technology-based effluent limits, ensuring both types of limits can coexist in the permit.