[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4541 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4541

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to improve the quality 
       of the waters of the United States in an equitable manner.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 14, 2005

 Mr. Oberstar (for himself, Mr. Filner, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. McDermott, 
   Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Owens, Mr. Kildee, Mr. Sabo, Mr. McGovern, Mr. 
 Sanders, Mr. Israel, Mr. Evans, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Ms. McCollum of 
 Minnesota, and Mr. Pallone) 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 improve the quality 
       of the waters of the United States in an equitable manner.

    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 ``Clean Lakes, Estuaries, and Rivers 
Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Polluted runoff from precipitation events is the 
        greatest remaining impediment to the Nation in meeting the 
        Clean Water Act objective of restoring and maintaining the 
        chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's 
        waters.
            (2) The rate of sediment runoff from construction sites is 
        typically 10 to 20 times greater than the rate from 
        agricultural lands and 1,000 to 2,000 times greater than the 
        rate from forest lands.
            (3) During a short period of time, construction activities 
        can contribute more sediment to streams than would otherwise be 
        deposited over several decades, causing physical and biological 
        harm to the Nation's waters.
            (4) Siltation is the second leading cause of water quality 
        impairment in rivers and streams.
            (5) Siltation is the third leading cause of water quality 
        impairment in lakes.
            (6) Siltation is the leading cause of degraded wetland 
        integrity.
            (7) Silt robs water bodies of sunlight, killing grasses and 
        burying the benthic community.
            (8) States are developing and implementing total maximum 
        daily loads for pollutants that impair water quality, and 
        exempting entire classes of pollution sources from permitting 
        requirements for stormwater discharges will place an 
        inequitable burden on other sources of siltation.
            (9) Exempting up to 30,000 oil and gas construction sites 
        annually from permitting requirements for stormwater discharges 
        will harm human health and the environment and impair the 
        ability of States to address the single largest source of water 
        quality impairment.

SEC. 3. REPEAL.

    Section 502(24) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
U.S.C. 1362(24)), relating to the definition of oil and gas 
exploration, is repealed.
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