[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1720 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1720

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to ensure that sewage 
 treatment plants monitor for and report discharges of raw sewage, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 20, 2005

    Mr. Bishop of New York 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 ensure that sewage 
 treatment plants monitor for and report discharges of raw sewage, 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 ``Raw Sewage Overflow Community Right-
to-Know Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Centers for Disease Control estimates that there 
        are 7,100,000 cases of mild to moderate, and 560,000 cases of 
        moderate to severe, infectious waterborne disease in the United 
        States each year.
            (2) Inadequately treated sewage is filled with bacteria, 
        viruses, parasites, and worms that make people sick.
            (3) People who ingest or inhale inadequately treated sewage 
        can contract gastroenteritis, hepatitis, giardiasis, 
        cryptosporidiosis, dysentery, and other gastrointestinal and 
        respiratory diseases.
            (4) Between 1,800,000 and 3,500,000 Americans become sick 
        every year just from swimming in waters contaminated by 
        sanitary sewer overflows.
            (5) The loss of swimming opportunities (beach closings) due 
        to pathogen contamination is valued at $1,000,000,000 to 
        $2,000,000,000 annually in the United States.
            (6) Economic losses due to swimming-related illnesses are 
        estimated at $28,000,000,000 annually.
            (7) Many sewer systems do not routinely monitor to detect 
        sewer overflows or report those that do occur to environmental 
        or public health agencies.
            (8) Better monitoring, reporting, and public notification 
        of sewer overflows would save millions of Americans from 
        getting sick every year.
            (9) Public health authorities are not routinely notified of 
        sewer overflows that threaten public health.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    Section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1362) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(24) Sanitary sewer overflow.--The term `sanitary sewer 
        overflow' means an overflow, spill, release, or diversion of 
        wastewater from a sanitary sewer system. Such term does not 
        include combined sewer overflows or other discharges from the 
        combined portions of a combined sewer system and does not 
        include wastewater backups into buildings caused by a blockage 
        or other malfunction of a building lateral that is privately 
        owned. Such term includes overflows or releases of wastewater 
        that reach waters of the United States, overflows or releases 
        of wastewater that do not reach waters of the United States, 
        and wastewater backups into buildings that are caused by 
        blockages or flow conditions in a sanitary sewer other than a 
        building lateral.''.

SEC. 4. MONITORING, REPORTING, AND PUBLIC NOTIFICATION OF SEWER 
              OVERFLOWS.

    Section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1342) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(r) Sanitary Sewer Overflows.--
            ``(1) General requirements.--Not later than 1 year after 
        the date of enactment of this subsection, the owner or operator 
        of a publicly owned treatment works (as defined in section 212) 
        under a permit issued under this section--
                    ``(A) must institute and utilize a methodology, 
                technology, or management program that will alert the 
                owner or operator to the occurrence of a sanitary sewer 
                overflow in a timely manner;
                    ``(B) must notify the public of a sanitary sewer 
                overflow in any area where the overflow has the 
                potential to affect human health;
                    ``(C) must notify the public as soon as practicable 
                within 24 hours of the time the owner or operator 
                becomes aware of the overflow;
                    ``(D) must immediately notify public health 
                authorities and other affected entities, such as public 
                water systems, of any sanitary sewer overflow that may 
                imminently and substantially endanger human health;
                    ``(E) must provide to the Administrator or the 
                State in the case of a State that has a permit program 
                approved under this section either an oral or 
                electronic report as soon as practicable within 24 
                hours of the time the owner or operator becomes aware 
                of the overflow;
                    ``(F) must provide to the Administrator or the 
                State, as the case may be, within 5 days of the time 
                the owner or operator becomes aware of the overflow a 
                written report describing--
                            ``(i) the magnitude, duration, and 
                        suspected cause of the overflow;
                            ``(ii) the steps taken or planned to 
                        reduce, eliminate, and prevent recurrence of 
                        the overflow; and
                            ``(iii) the steps taken or planned to 
                        mitigate the impact of the overflow;
                    ``(G) must report all sanitary sewer overflows to 
                waters of the United States on its monthly discharge 
                monitoring report to the Administrator or the State, as 
                the case may be; and
                    ``(H) must report to the Administrator or the 
                State, as the case may be, the total number of such 
                overflows (including overflows that do not reach any 
                waters of the United States) in a calendar year, 
                including the details of how much wastewater was 
                released per incident, the duration of each overflow, 
                the location of the overflow and any potentially 
                affected receiving waters, the responses taken to clean 
                up the overflow, and the actions taken to mitigate 
                impacts and avoid further sanitary sewer overflows at 
                the site.
            ``(2) Report to epa.--If a State receives a report under 
        paragraph (1)(H), the State shall report to the Administrator 
        annually, in summary, the details of reported sanitary sewer 
        overflows that occurred in that State.''.

SEC. 5. ELIGIBILITY FOR ASSISTANCE.

    Section 603(c) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
U.S.C. 1383(c)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``and'' the first place it appears; and
            (2) by inserting after ``320 of this Act'' the following: 
        ``, and (4) for the implementation of requirements to monitor, 
        report, and notify the public of sanitary sewer overflows under 
        section 402''.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    Section 607 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1387) is amended by striking ``the following sums'' and all that 
follows through the period at the end and inserting ``$2,200,000,000 
for each of fiscal years 2006 through 2012.''.
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