[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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