SEC. 301 Effluent Limitations
(a) Except where this Act says it’s ok, “the discharge of any pollutant by any person shall be
unlawful.”
(b) There must be in place:
(1) (A) By July 1, 1977, effluent limits for all point sources except POTWs
(i) requiring Best Practicable Control Technology Currently Available, or
(ii) for discharges into a POTW, requiring pretreatment.
(B) secondary treatment for those POTWs that aren’t grandfathered.
(C) any stronger limitations required to meet the water quality standards set by state or
federal law.
(2)
(A) effluent limits for categories and classes of point sources, except POTWs, which
(i) require Best Available Technology Economically Achievable for each category or
class which will result in reasonable futher progress toward goals of Act. These
limits can include total elimination of all discharges if EPA finds that it is
technologically and economically achievable
(ii) for discharges into a POTW, requiring pretreatment.
(C) For table 1 toxic pollutants, issued prior by 1989.
(D) for section 307 toxic pollutants not addressed in (C), by 1989.
(E) for section 304(a)(4) pollutants, by 1989.
(F) for all other pollutants, by 1989.
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SEC 302: Water Quality Related Effluent Limitations
(a) If a discharge prevents a water from meeting a water quality standard, even with the
technology-based effluent limitations in 301(b)(2), new effluent limitations will be set to
ensure that the water quality standard is met
(b)
(1) Before doing so, EPA must hold a public hearing.
(2)
(A) EPA can issue a permit modifying the WQ-based limits in (a) for non-toxic pollutants
if economic and social costs are unrelated to the benefits obtained.
(B) EPA can also do so for a 5-year (max) period if the permittee shows that the
modified requirements
(i) are the maximum degree of control economically obtainable by the permittee.
(ii) result in reasonable further progress toward compliance
(c) The creation of WQ-based effluent limitations should not delay the 301 Technology-Based
limits.
SEC. 303 Water Quality Standards
(a) (1) States must keep existing pre-1972 standards in place unless and until EPA says they
aren’t good enough.
(2) But they have to submit those standards to EPA for review NOW.
(3) (A) If states don’t have pre-existing standards, they have to develop them within 180
days.
(B) And he’ll approve them if they are good enough.
(C) If they aren’t good enough, he’ll tell you what has to change. If you don’t agree, EPA
will set standards for you.
(b) (1) EPA will set water quality standards for a State if
(A) the State doesn’t submit its own
(B) the State submits standards that aren’t good enough.
(2) The State can still create their own standards if they get on the ball before the EPA
actually publishes their own standards.
(c) (1) Governors need to hold public hearings every now and then to review their standards.
(2) (A) Any revisions get approved by EPA. Any revisions need to tell us what the
“designated uses” of your waters are, and what WQ standards apply to each
designated use:
“Such standards shall be such as to protect the public health or
welfare, enhance the quality of water and serve the purposes of this
Act. Such standards shall be established taking into consideration their
use and value for public water supplies, propagation of fish and
wildlife, recreational purposes, and agricultural, industrial, and other
purposes, and also taking into consideration their use and value for
navigation.”
(B) Any revisions need to include numeric criteria for a toxics listed in 307 that could be
expected to interfere with a designated use. If you can’t set a numeric criteria, use
criteria “based on biological monitoring or assessment methods”.
(3) EPA will approve new standards within 60 days, or require changes within 90 days. If the
state doesn’t adopt them within 90 days after that, EPA will impose standards on them.
(4) EPA will prepare and impose its own water quality standards on a state where:
(A) EPA decides that the state’s own revised standards are not good enough, or:
(B) EPA decides that a new standard is necessary. These standards become final 90 days
after proposal, although any state has until then to adopt acceptable standards of its
own.
(d) (1) (A) Each state will create a list of water bodies where Best Practical Control Technology
(Section 301) measures aren’t enough to meet the proposed water quality standards.
These waters will be prioritized by how bad the pollution is and what the water is
used for.
(B) States will identify waters in which the 301 controls on hot water discharge are not
enough to protect aquatic life.
(C) For the waters described in (A), the state should calculate the “total maximum daily
load” of each pollutant that can be assimilated safely by the water body while still
achieving water quality standards, accounting for seasonal variation in assimilation
and flow, and accounting for ignorance.
(D) Ditto the “total maximum daily thermal load” that can be tolerated by aquatic life.
(2) This report gets submitted to the EPA, which can approve or disapprove. If approved,
the report becomes the basis of planning. If not, the EPA will identify the waters and
loads to be addressed in planning.
(3) For all waters NOT listed in the report, the state will make TMDL estimates.
(4) (A) For waters in the report where the quality standard hasn’t yet been met, the effluent
limits based on a TMDL will be changed only if
(i) the revision will create a situation where the cumulative effect of all TMDLs for
the water will meet the standard or
(ii) the designated use for the water is changed.
(B)For waters in the report where the quality standard is attained, the effluent limits
based on a TMDL can only be changed if it does not degrade the quality of the water.
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SEC 402: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(a)
(1) Notwithstanding the text in 301(a), EPA can issue permits for discharging pollutants IF:
(A) the discharge meets all the water quality criteria requirements in 301, 302, 306, 307,
308 and 403, or
(B) EPA recommendations are followed (in cases where the relevant criteria haven’t yet
been set).
(2) EPA will set the rules for how permits can be issued and what information is needed to
issue one.
(3) The rules are the same whether or not the State is issuing this permit or EPA is.
(b) After EPA has issued guidelines for how to get information from all point-sources, States that
want to administer their own permit programs have to submit a full proposal to EPA.