H.R. 3898
PERMIT Act
Official summary
Written by the Congressional Research Service.
Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act or the PERMIT Act
This bill limits the scope of the Clean Water Act by redefining navigable waters to exclude (1) waste treatment systems, (2) ephemeral features that flow only in direct response to precipitation, (3) prior converted cropland, (4) groundwater, or (5) any other features determined to be excluded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Text of the bill
(a) State water quality standards. Section 303(c) (33 U.S.C. 1313(c)) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1)—
(A) by striking The Governor of a State and inserting (A) The Governor of a State; and
(B) by striking Results of such review shall be made available to the Administrator. and inserting the following:
(B) Reviews under this paragraph shall include review, for purposes of ensuring that combined sewer overflow controls are cost effective, of any water quality standard applicable to a body of water into which, pursuant to a permit, order, or decree issued pursuant to this Act, a municipal combined storm and sanitary sewer discharges.
(C) Results of each review under this paragraph shall be made available to the Administrator.
; and
(2) in paragraph (2)(A)—
(A) by inserting (i) before their use and value for public water supplies;
(B) by striking , and also taking into consideration and inserting ; (ii); and
(C) by inserting before the period at the end the following: ; and (iii) the cost and commercial availability in the United States of treatment technologies (including whether the technologies have been demonstrated at an applicable scale) that may be required to be applied to point sources in order to result in compliance with such standards.
(b) State water quality criteria. Section 304(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1314(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
(10) Consideration of treatment technologies. In developing or revising water quality criteria under this subsection, the Administrator shall take into consideration the cost and commercial availability in the United States of treatment technologies (including whether the technologies have been demonstrated at an applicable scale) that may be required to be applied to point sources in order to result in compliance with water quality standards adopted or promulgated under section 303.