[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3238 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3238

 To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to prevent lapses in 
        National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 12, 1998

Mr. Sessions (for himself, Mr. Archer, Mr. Barton of Texas, Mr. Brady, 
  Mr. Bonilla, Mrs. Chenoweth, Mr. Combest, Mr. Crapo, Mr. DeLay, Mr. 
Edwards, Ms. Granger, Mr. Hall of Texas, Mr. Sam Johnson of Texas, Mr. 
Redmond, Mr. Sandlin, Mr. Shadegg, Mr. Smith of Texas, Mr. Thornberry, 
  Mr. Turner, and Mr. Young of Alaska) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
                             Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to prevent lapses in 
        National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits.

    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 ``NPDES Permit Gap Prevention Act of 
1998''.

SEC. 2. NPDES PERMITS.

    (a) State Program Requirements.--Section 402(b)(1)(B) of the 
Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1342(b)(1)(B)) is 
amended by inserting after ``(B)'' the following: ``except as provided 
in subsection (q),''.
    (b) Continued Effectiveness of Expired Permits.--Section 402 of the 
Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1342) is amended by 
adding at the end the following:
    ``(q) Continued Effectiveness of Expired Permits.--If the 
Administrator or a State (in the case of a program approved under 
subsection (b)) does not reissue or withdraw a permit issued by the 
Administrator or the State under this section on or before the 
expiration date of the permit, the permit shall remain in full force 
and effect and new discharges may be authorized under the permit until 
such date as the Administrator or the State reissues or withdraws the 
permit.''.
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