[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2452 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2452

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

                              May 23, 2007

 Mr. Bishop of New York (for himself, Mr. LoBiondo, Ms. Bordallo, Mr. 
  Grijalva, Ms. Norton, Mr. Nadler, Mr. DeFazio, Mrs. Maloney of New 
   York, Mr. Lantos, Mrs. McCarthy of New York, Mr. Saxton, and Mr. 
Bartlett of Maryland) 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 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:
            ``(25) 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.
            ``(26) Combined sewer overflow.--The term `combined sewer 
        overflow' means an overflow, spill, release or diversion of 
        wastewater from a combined sanitary system at a point prior to 
        the publicly owned treatment works treatment plant.
            ``(27) Sewer overflow.--The term `sewer overflow' means a 
        sanitary sewer overflow or a combined sewer overflow.''.

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) Sewer Overflow Notifications.--
            ``(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 
        403.3(p) of the Code of Federal Regulations, as in effect on 
        March 1, 2007) 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 sewer overflow 
                in a timely manner;
                    ``(B) must notify the public of a sewer overflow in 
                any area where the overflow has the potential to affect 
                human health;
                    ``(C) must notify the public as soon as practicable 
                but not later than 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 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 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 sewer 
                overflows (including sewer 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 sewer 
                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 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 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 sewer overflows under section 
        402''.
                                 <all>