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119th CONGRESS
1st Session |
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to provide exclusions from the term “navigable waters”, and for other purposes.
Ms. Ernst (for herself, Mr. Risch, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Tillis, and Mr. Wicker) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to provide exclusions from the term “navigable waters”, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the “Clarifying Legal Exclusions Around Regulated Waters Act” or the “CLEAR Waters Act”.
SEC. 2. Definition of navigable waters.
Section 502(7) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1362(7)) is amended—
(1) by striking “(7) The term” and inserting the following:
“(A) IN GENERAL.—The term”; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
“(B) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘navigable waters’ does not include any of the following:
“(i) Any component of a waste treatment system, including any lagoon or treatment pond (such as a settling or cooling pond), designed to actively or passively—
“(I) convey or retain wastewater; or
“(II) concentrate, settle, reduce, or remove pollutants from wastewater.
“(ii) Ephemeral features that flow only in direct response to precipitation.
“(iii) Groundwater.
“(iv) Any other features determined to be excluded by the Administrator and the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers.”.