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
Section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1342) is further amended by adding at the end the following:
(u) Discharges of pesticides
(1) No permit requirement. Except as provided in paragraph (2), a permit shall not be required by the Administrator or a State under this Act for a discharge from a point source into navigable waters of a pesticide authorized for sale, distribution, or use under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or the residue of such a pesticide, resulting from the application of such pesticide.
(2) Exceptions. Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the following discharges of a pesticide or pesticide residue:
(A) A discharge resulting from the application of a pesticide in violation of a provision of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act that is relevant to protecting water quality, if—
(i) the discharge would not have occurred but for the violation; or
(ii) the amount of pesticide or pesticide residue in the discharge is greater than would have occurred without the violation.
(B) Stormwater discharges subject to regulation under subsection (p).
(C) The following discharges subject to regulation under this section:
(i) Manufacturing or industrial effluent.
(ii) Treatment works effluent.
(iii) Discharges incidental to the normal operation of a vessel, including a discharge resulting from ballasting operations or vessel biofouling prevention.