Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would allow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and 47 States and U.S. territories with delegated authority under the Clean Water Act to issue permits for public works up to 10 years.

Under the Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, NPDES, Federal, State, and territory regulators can issue permits for 5 years, and that is it. That arbitrary permit duration no longer matches the construction timeline for public works, like modernizing wastewater treatment plants and building new water recycling facilities.

When the Clean Water Act was signed into law in 1972, publicly owned wastewater treatment plants were being constructed principally to provide primary or secondary treatment. Things have changed over the last five decades. Now, these plants are looking at tertiary and even higher standards, taking longer time for the engineering as well as the construction. Some of these plants are even installing fuel cells, such as in my district, Pittsburg, California.

Increasing the NPDES permit from 5 to 10 years ensures that the Federal permitting process accurately reflects the timeframes to construct a public water project, upholding the Clean Water Act protections.

U.S. EPA and many State Clean Water Act regulators, including the California State Water Resources Control Board, have a backlog of permits, some of these multiple, multiple years. That is why many, if not most, of these NPDES permits issued nationwide expire long before they can be renewed and remain in effect, sometimes for years.

Mr. Chair, this amendment, if adopted, would clear the backlog and provide the necessary time to plan, engineer, and build the facilities.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the bipartisan support for this amendment. It makes a lot of sense to expand up to 10 years. It may be that an entity would like to have a permit for less than 10 years, and this amendment would allow that, but more importantly, it does allow a permit to go for a full 10 years.

The bipartisan support is much appreciated, even though it was presented in opposition, which I understand needed to be done to meet the rules.

Mr. Chairman, nevertheless, with that in mind, I urge my colleagues to vote ``aye,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

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