[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1436 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

  1st Session
                                S. 1436

   To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to allow certain 
privately owned public treatment works to be treated as publicly owned 
                treatment works, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 29, 1995

Mr. Lautenberg 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 allow certain 
privately owned public treatment works to be treated as publicly owned 
                treatment works, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Municipal Wastewater Treatment 
Facility Private Investment Act of 1995''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) municipal wastewater treatment construction needs 
        exceed $100,000,000,000;
            (2) Federal assistance for State revolving loan programs 
        will provide funding for only a portion of the municipal 
        wastewater treatment facilities;
            (3) increasing the amount of funds invested by the private 
        sector in municipal wastewater treatment facilities would--
                    (A) help address the funding shortfall referred to 
                in paragraph (2);
                    (B) stimulate economic growth;
                    (C) lead to an increase in the construction of 
                wastewater treatment facilities and jobs;
                    (D) result in a cleaner environment; and
                    (E) provide a greater degree of fiscal flexibility 
                for local governments in meeting Federal mandates; and
            (4) the most effective way to encourage an increase in the 
        level of involvement of the private sector in the provision of 
        municipal wastewater services is to provide for the uniform 
        regulation of municipal wastewater treatment plants without 
        regard to whether the wastewater treatment plants are publicly 
        or privately owned or under the control of a public and private 
        partnership.

SEC. 3. PUBLICLY OWNED TREATMENT WORKS DEFINED.

    Section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1362) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
    ``(21) As used in titles I, III, and IV, and this title, the term 
`publicly owned treatment works' means a device or system used in the 
collection, storage, treatment, recycling, or reclamation of municipal 
wastewater (or a mixture of municipal wastewater and industrial wastes 
of a liquid nature) with respect to which all or part of the device or 
system--
            ``(A) was constructed and is owned or operated by a State 
        or municipality;
            ``(B) was constructed, owned, or operated by a State or 
        municipality and the ownership has been transferred (in whole 
        or in part) to a private entity that is a regulated utility or 
        that has in effect a contract with a State or municipality to 
        receive municipal wastewater (or a mixture of municipal 
        wastewater and industrial wastes of a liquid nature) from 
        sewers, pipes, or other conveyances, if the facility is used in 
        a manner prescribed in the matter preceding subparagraph (A) by 
        the private entity; or
            ``(C) is owned or operated by a private entity that is a 
        regulated utility or that has in effect a contract with a State 
        or municipality to receive municipal wastewater (or a mixture 
        of municipal wastewater and industrial wastes of a liquid 
        nature) from sewers, pipes, or other conveyances within a 
        service area that would otherwise be served by the State or 
        municipality, if the facility is used in a manner prescribed in 
        the matter preceding subparagraph (A).
    ``(22) The term `regulated utility' means a person, firm, or 
corporation with respect to which--
            ``(A) a State water pollution control agency grants a 
        license to own or operate (or both) a wastewater treatment 
        facility; and
            ``(B) a State regulates the fees or other charges of the 
        utility.''.
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