The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee May 15 approved by voice vote a bill that would amend the Clean Water Act to provide a uniform national standard for public notification of combined sanitary sewer overflows, as well as two other water-related measures.

The Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act (H.R. 2452) would require owners and operators of publicly owned water treatment works to notify federal and state agencies, public health officials, and the public about sewer overflows on a timely basis.

Introduced by Rep. Timothy Bishop (D-N.Y.), the measure specifically would require municipalities to develop and implement ways to alert the treatment works in the event of a sewer overflow, notify the public in places where the overflow could affect public health, and notify public health officials of overflows that may "imminently and substantially" endanger human health.
It also would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a formal rulemaking to define various terms, including "timely" and "endanger human health."

The committee also approved two other pieces of water-related legislation, one (H.R. 135) that calls for establishing a commission to develop a comprehensive water strategy, and another (H.R. 5770) calling for a study of the impact of climate change on water quality and resources.

Committee approval came about a week after the Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment, which is chaired by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), approved H.R. 2452 on May 7. No amendments were offered on any of the three bills at the May 15 markup (89 DEN A-9, 5/8/08  ).

A companion bill (S. 2080) was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on Sept. 20, 2007. A committee spokeswoman did not return a request for comment on the status of S. 2080, but Adam Krantz, managing director of government and public affairs for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, said he expects the committee to use the House bill as a "starting point" for its version. NACWA represents publicly owned wastewater utilities.

Krantz said NACWA supports the legislation. "NACWA and American Rivers worked together to make some key improvements to the bill, and we are supportive of the direction it is taking," he said.

He said some of those changes included eliminating duplicative reporting requirements and clarifying that the bill would apply only to treatment plants holding National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits, rather than to entities that carry waste to the treatment plants.

Other Legislation Approved

Also approved at the May 15 markup was the Twenty-First Century Water Commission Act of 2007 (H.R. 135), which would authorize $12 million to set up a commission to provide for water assessments to project future water supply and demand, review current water management programs at each level of government, and develop recommendations for a comprehensive water strategy.

In addition, the committee approved H.R. 5770, which directs the National Academy of Sciences to study the potential impacts of climate change on water resources, water quality, and EPA's Clean Water Act programs. Specific topics for study include the potential impact of climate change on wetlands, shoreline erosion, and saltwater intrusion as a result of sea level rise.

By Jeff Kinney